
Glass T^Rax- 

Book -7e 



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HE 



PULPIT AND PLATFORM. 



BEING 



DISCOURSES, ARGUMENTS AND ORATIONS, 



BY 



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JOHN YOUNG, 



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LEXINGTON, KY., 

A. W. ELDER, PRINTER, UPPER STREET. 



1854. 

1 




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io 



X oSS 



Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1854, 

BY JOHN YOUNG. 

In the Clerk's Office for the District of Kentucky. 



PRK*lSSn VY A. vV. ELDkft. 

Upper Street, Lexington, Ky. 






PREFACE. 

.«««•»» — . — - 

Kind Reader : 

These essays, pubLshed at different 
times, in Europe and America, I have now collected to- 
gether for your use and entertainment. 

I have few hopes of public applause, and certainly 
no dread of opposition. 

The discourse on Christian Union raised against me 
a storm as unlooked for as it was unmerciful. I was 
little aware while writing it, that in striking at the 
creed I was awaking a very demon of bigotry and in- 
tolerance. 

An extreme partiality of friends evinced itself by 
putting this discourse without my connivance, into the 
corner stone of the Meeting-house of the Second Bap- 
tist Church of Trenton, and the undying enmity of op- 
posers, has since descended even to the mean work of 
digging up that corner stone for the purpose of taking 
away the obnoxious document. 

Spirit of intolerance, you may dig on ! ! ! The spade, 
the axe, the faggot, and the rack are more congenial 
weapons to you than reason or revelation. 

Not with such instruments can the progress of free 
Bible enquiry by stopped. 

Almost every position takeft in this volume was ad- 
vocated amidst much opposition; but it is surely en- 
couraging to find that public sentiment is steadily ad- 
vancing in favor of light, liberty, and love. 

The main feature of this book is, doubtless, its ie- 
lentless opposition to all despotism, political and reli- 
gious. This indicates my true character, and without 
the tediousness of a biography, tells the tale of the sa- 
crifices I have made, the opposition I have encountered, 
and my present religious position. 

The world, however, is moving on apace, and if I dc 
not run too fast or die too soon, I may yet hope to be 
overtaken by public approbation. * 

Meantime, kind reader, I hope you will profit by ^11 
the good you find in this book and throw the bad away, 



CONTENTS. 



The Kingdom of Christ, .... \ 

The English Corn Laws, unjust and injurious, 24 

Christian Union, .-,-.- 42 

The Life of Alexander Carson, L. L. D, - - 73 
Bible Election, - - - - - - 103 

Christian Baptism, - 132 

Reply to Dr. Henderson's Speech on Revision of 

the English Bible, - - 175 
Speech at Louisville on Bible Translation and Inter- 
pretation, 194 

The Bible the Safeguard of Liberty, an Address at 

Cincinnati, 207 

Two Letters on the Management of College Class- 
es, . > . - - . r - 2M 



Errata. — Page 207; for American Bible Society, read 
American Christian Bible Society. 



THE KINGDOM OF CHRIST: 

A Sermon, preached at the Baptist Union Meeting, held 
at Rahue, Ireland, August 5, 1838. By John Young, 
Missionary of the Baptist Irish Society. 



"MY KINGDOM IS NOT OF THIS WORLD."— John xviii: 36. 

When Jehovah selected a nation to be keepers of hii 
oracles, and witnesses of his power, he sent unto them 
his servants, the Prophets, declaring that he would give 
them a Saviour, who would be descended from one of 
their tribes. In all their difficulties and afflictions, this 
assurance was aground of consolation and joy. When 
carried captive into a foreign land, and loaded with the 
chains of slavery, they looked forward with hope to the 
time when they expected the Messiah to ascend the 
throne of his father David, and become the deliverer of 
Israel. The manner in which this kingdom of Christ 
was spoken of by the Prophets led the Jews to believe 
that his Government would be a temporal one. — Isaiah, 
in his 9th chapter, when describing the character of the 
looked-for Messiah, uses the following expressions: — 
4< Unto us a Child is born; unto us a Son is given; and 
the government shall be upon his shoulder; and his 
name shall be called Wonderful, Counsellor, The Mighty 
God, The Father of the everlasting age, The Prince of 
Peace. Of the increase of his government and peace, 
there shall be no end, upon the throne of David, and 
upon his kingdom; to order it, and to establish it with 
judgment and with justice, from henceforth, even forever. " 
Jeremiah also speaks thus: "Behold the day shall come, 
saith the Lord, that I will raise unto David a righteous 
Branch;" and a King shall reign and prosper, and shall 
execute judgment and justice in the earth." The mis- 
taken views entertained of these prophecies, roused 
against Christ the jealousy and hatred of the Roman 
Magistrates. When the star-directed sages of the East 
came to Herod with the joyful tidings of peace and 



2 THE KINGDOM OF CHRIS?. 

lalvation, he commanded them to return, and tell hirrf 
where the infant prince was born; and trembling for the 
security of his sceptre, and the stability of his throne, 
he embrued his hands in the blood of Bethlehem's children, 
that the promised Saviour might be cut off. 

Similar views were entertained by the multitudes w 7 bo 
followed Jesus, as he was preaching the coming of the 
kingdom: when they ate of the loaves and were filled, 
they were resolved to take him by force and make him a 
king; — yet, not long after, when disappointed in their 
selfish and worldly designs, they joined the party of the 
priests and rulers — shouting, w T ith hypocritical loyalty, 
"Away with him, away with him: we will have no king 
but Caesar. 

This mistake was not confined, however, to the igno- 
rant and selfish multitudes. The learned Doctors and 
Scribes knew nothing of the spiritual nature of his 
kingdom. They looked for the pomp of power, the 
ensigns of royalty, and the ambition of a conqueror; 
but they saw in Jesus, only the hated Gallilean — the 
carpenter's son. They expected a noble warrior, who 
would plant the standard of independence on Zion's 
hill, and rescue them from the Roman yoke; but Jesus 
was a man of peace, rendering unto Caesar the things 
that were Caesar's; and therefore, they condemn him as 
an impostor. We cannot wonder at all these things, 
when we learn that his disciples, who for years were 
listening to him w T ho spoke as never man spake, were 
entirely ignorant of the proper object of his mission. 
When offended at the treatment which they received in 
a certain place, they asked him to call down fire from 
heaven to destroy the offenders, and called forth from 
the best of Masters that severe rebuke — "Ye know not 
what manner of spirit ye are of." When telling them 
of his sufferings, one of them took him aside and rebuked 
him, saying, "Be these things far from thee, Lord;" and 
at the latest and most interesting period of their earthly 
intercourse— when their Master was to be taken from 
their head — when from Olivet's Mount he was ready to 
ascend to his Father's throne; they put to him that unsea- 
sonable question, "Wilt thou now restore the kingdom 
to Israel?" 



THE KINGDOM OF CHRIST. J 

Scarcely had the fires of persecution died away, and 
the martyrs blood sunk into its kindred earth, when the 
primitive church lost sight of the spiritual nature of 
Christ's kingdom, and erected herself into a state ma- 
chinery under Constantine. Thus laying the founda- 
tion of that tyrannical apostacy which has exalted itself 
above all that is called God — trampling on the rights of 
nations, and trafficking in the deluded souls of men. 
This mighty Dagon has now fallen before the ark of 
God, and its members have been scattered by the w T indg 
of heaven; but even Christians are yet too much dispo- 
sed to identify Christ's Kingdom with those .of this world, 
and make it dependant upon them. 

Even yet, they think that the glory of this kingdom 
depends in a great measure upon the treasure of kings, 
and the alliance and headship of temporal sovereigns. 
Thus saying in effect, that they can serve two masters; 
making the blood-bought spouse of Jesus an engine of 
State policy, and a ladder for worldly ambition. 

In order to correct these errors, we shall consider 

I. What Christ's Kingdom is. 

II. Show its value, from the manner in which it 
was obtained. 

III. Mention some things which have tended to 
identify Christ's Kingdom with the kingdoms of this 
world. 

I. I am to show wherein Christ's Kingdom consists. 

1. The whole universe may be regarded as Christ's 
Kingdom. It was uecessary that the Captain of our 
Salvation should have power, not merely over his own 
people, but over inanimate nature, wicked men, and 
condemned spirits, that he might cause all things to 
work together for the good of those who love him; — that 
he might cause the heavens to give rain, and the earth 
to pom- out her treasures to them; — that he might re- 
strain their enemies in their attacks, saying unto Satan, 
u Hitherto shalt thou go, but no further — touch not their 
lives;" — that he might be able to frustrate the unholy 
designs of wicked men, and cause them to fall into the 
pit which they themselves have digged. Thus he ii 
represented in Scripture as being head over all things 
for the Church. When casting out devils he said, " Bj.it 



4 THE KINGDOM OF <Cmi8T. 

if I cast out devils by the Spirit of God, then is the King- 
dom of God come unto you." From this expression, it 
appears that his exercising authority over devils and 
wicked men, was part of his proper work as Messiah, and 
consequently, that he claims the whole universe for his 
kingdom. 

2. Christ's Kingdom consists of all his believing peo- 
ple, regarded as one body or church. When Jesus 
ascended up on high, leading captivity captive, he did 
not allow those disciples whom he had called from their 
fishing barks, to return disconsolate to their former occu- 
pations; but commanded them to wait for the coming of 
his Spirit. The objects of the mission of the Spirit were 
soon manifested by the conversion of three thousand 
souls, by forming the new converts into a society, and 
by adding daily unto this assembly the saved. We see 
divine wisdom admirably displayed in the establishment 
of such a society, as would give comfort and edification 
to each of its members, become a light to the world, a 
witness for Christ, a repository of his precious Gospel, 
and maintain continually an aggressive or missionary 
character. In this kingdom he has appointed officers; 
described their qualifications and duties; ordained laws, 
and instituted ordinances, with which the world has noth- 
ing to do. This Kingdom is in the world, not of the 
world. It is, as the school-men say, "impcrium in impe- 
rio." It can exist under any form of civil government, 
because it yields subjection to the powers that be in 
temporal things; but in spiritual things it says, "One is 
our Master, even Christ; we ought to obey God rather 
than man." This Kingdom is not confined to one part of 
the world, but is destined to extend over all. It began as 
a little cloud; but is gradually spreading over the whole 
heavens; was sown as a grain of mustard seed, but has 
already become a great tree — the kings of the earth 
taking shelter under its branches. The word of this 
Kingdom was sent first to the Jews, but they rejected it. 
It was preached to the Gentiles, and the superstitious 
isles of Greece rejoiced because of it. On the wings of 
love, it was 'borne to our Western coasts, and spread 
civilization and peace around. It has passed over the 
billows of the wide Atlantic, and spread like morning 



THE KINGDOM OF CHRIST. 5 

light over the waving forests of the New World. On- 
ward, onward will its course of glory be, till every nation, 
every tribe, and every prince shall yield obedience, and 
cast their crowns at the Messiah's feet. This kingdom 
is not confined to one section of Christians, but composed 
of all who call in faith upon the same Lord. Forms and 
ceremonies have too often been causes of strife, and 
division, among those who should have labored together 
for the salvation of men. Human laws and ecclesias- 
tical creeds, instead of producing uniformity, have always 
fomented dissension, produced schism, tyrannized over 
the weak, and driven off the intelligent; until the original 
unity of Christ's church can scarcely now be recognized, 
amidst the contending factions of Protestantism. Yet 
the elements of most perfect union are still to be found 
in the Christian religion. There is one King in Zion, 
Jesus Christ the righteous, who only can claim our alle- 
giance in the church of God. There is one testimony or 
foundation of faith, in the life, death, and resurrection of 
the Lord Messiah, which forms the true and only ground 
of the believer's hope. And there is one body or church. 
filled with the Divine Spirit — a Spirit everywhere, of 
love to God, and devotedness to the cause of humanity. 
The various sections of this Kingdom will gradually be 
brought together. The works of men will be cast out 
from the temple of the Lord; the sounds of discord will 
be heard no more; — but praise and thanksgiving shall 
resound from pole to pole. 

The leaven of heaven's truth is now silently, but 
powerfully operating on the disorganized church of God. 
Gradually, corruptions and abuses will be thrown off. 
and the elements of strife will retire before the refining 
power of heaven's love — until the visions of ancient seers 
will be realised; when all nations shall see and flow 
together; when wars shall cease unto the ends of the 
earth; when Ephraim shall no more envy Judah, nor 
Judah vex Ephraim; but the name of the Lord shall be 
known as one, from the rising of the sun to the going 
down of the same. 

Before, however, these glorious anticipations are real- 
ised, there is much work to be done. The authority of 
men in religion must be resisted, and the authority of 
1* 



6 THE KINGDOiM OF CHRIST. 

God submitted to everywhere. The Sacred Scriptures 
must be studied, and the laws and principles which were 
intended to regulate the faith and worship of Christ's 
church must take the place of canons, liturgies and 
creeds. The great law of Christian forbearance, too, 
must be brought into exercise in those differences which 
will ever characterize the action of independent minds. 
The Gospel of Christ,freed from the traditions of a super- 
stitious church, must be published among all nations. 
The followers of the Saviour must rise above the dull 
and spiritless formalism of the times in which they live; 
and kindle anew their zeal for a world's conversion, at 
the altar of Apostolic Christianity. The church perhaps 
is yet in her wilderness state — and as she comes vfp to 
her glorious land, through an enemy's country, she 
should lean on her best beloved. 

A prompt obedience to all the commands of the Cap- 
tain of our salvation is essential, both to our present 
safety, and our future triumphs. 

For forty years, the tribes of Israel wandered through 
the wilderness, fed by manna, and guided by the light 
of God. And though manj^ perished by the way, their 
children passed into the vine-clad hills. Our toils are 
^reat, and the conflict arduous; a priestly hierarchy claim 
dominion over the house of God; a worldly and untaught 
multitude bow to their behests, too often because they 
cat of the loaves and are filled, while the true friends of 
Jesus are alienated from one another, and almost dis- 
heartened with the toils of the conflict. But let us now 
the bread of heaven, and follow the fire and the 
'•loud, and God will surely be faithful to all his promises. 
If we never see a Caanan of peace and union on earth, 
it will ere long open to our eyes in heaven. 

Soon shall the last enemy be subdued. Sweetly shall 
we sleep in the dust, until Jesus shall have finished his 
mediatorial work; then, having delivered up the kingdom 
to the Father, he and his saints shall reign together in 
glory. Take courage, drooping soldier of the cross, 
your warfare then will end. Hark! how the shout of 
victory rings through the arches of heaven. See!! the 
palms of triumph, waved by a countless host of conquer- 
prs. Put on your blood washed robes of light. Haste 



THE KINGDOM OT ICITRIST. "7 

home, ye ransomed sinners, to a kingdom where the 
Lamb, who is in the midst of the throne, shall wipe 
away all tears from your eyes, and ever lead you through 
green pastures, and by fountains of living water. 

II. I promised to impress you with a sense of the value 
of Christ's Kingdom, from a survey of his toils in ob- 
taining it. 

We are accustomed to set a high value upon that 
which has cost us much toil and effort to acquire. Air 
and water are most important gifts to man, and the want 
of them for even a short period, would spread death 
around. Yet they have no ascertained value in human 
life, because they are found every where, and cost us no 
labor to acquire. But when pearls are few, and gather- 
ee from the bottom of the ocean, we estimate them by 
the toil and danger attendant upon their acquisition. 

What high ideas, then, should we form of the import- 
ance of man's salvation? Imagine the nations of the 
earth collected into one vast assembly. Let their num- 
bers then be multiplied by the number of generations 
that ever have trod our earth; and whilst you are won- 
dering at these ten thousand times ten thousand human 
beings, with all their memory of the past, their warm 
affections to the present, and their hopes and fears of 
the distant future, should you behold the angel of death 
descend upon them, and, smitten out of life in a moment 
they leave the earth one vast charnel house of putrifying 
remains, oh! what dismay, what terror unutterable would 
take hold of you, as you saw life perish before your 
eyes, and the desolation of death reign all around. How 
the awful catastrophe would fill your soul, and drive out 
every other thought. How the cries of perishing men 
and women would ring in your ears, and chase away 
the slumbers of the night. 

Yet this forms only a faint emblem of the danger that 
besets, and the ruin that awaits, fallen and sinful mor- 
tals. Sin has ruined their peace,, destroyed their very 
lives, and is about to sink them finally into woe unutter- 
able. Where is the nation into which this plague has 
not spread? Who are the people who are safe from this 
deadly enemy? Xonc, none! It has traveled with the 
steady march of time through all the generations of the 



THE KINGDOM OT CHRIST, 



world's past history. It has carried its desolating scourg* 
into every country, and island, where human habitation 
is found. It has entered every household, and peace and 
joy has fled away before its approach. It has marred 
the moral loveliness of every man and woman upon 
Gods fair earth. Anguish fills every heart, and the 
stings of conscience already settled in the soul, give 
fearful presage of greater danger yet to come. The 
mutterings of heaven's thunder, are already heard in the 
distance. The tempest of Divine anger gathers dark 
and heavy over our heads. The soul, appalled at all 
without, turns in upon itself, and only finds the hand- 
writing of God upon the wall of her habitation. In this 
crisis, big with the fate of men, God looks, and there is 
no eye to pity, and no other hand to help; but his eye 
pities us, and his arm brings salvation near. Then the 
cheering accents of Divine love are heard proclaiming, 
"Deliver from going down to the pit, for I have found a 
ransom. 5 ' But who is this ransom? Is he a son of 
earth — a king of high renown and mighty deeds? Alas! 
how weak the arm of flesh, for in the day of God the 
strong man shall be as the tow, and the mighty man as 
the spark, and they shall both burn together, and none 
shall quench them. 

But has an angel descended to raise the fallen, and 
to cheer the faint, to heal the brokenhearted and to pro- 
claim liberty to the captive? No, a greater than angels 
is here, for he maketh the winds his messengers, the 
flaming fire his ministers; but to the son he saith, "Thy 
throne, O God, is forever and ever, a sceptre of righte- 
ousness is the sceptre of thy kingdom." And when the 
Son of God descends from heaven, surely then, at last, 
shall a sin laden people forget their follies, and their 
crimes, and run to meet their Lord. Will not hallelu- 
jahs rise from every tongue, and a joyful people crowd 
around to do their Saviour homage? Alas! alas! he 
comes to wander through our world, and seeing its 
riches all around, feel himself in the grasp of care and 
poverty. He comes as earth's first born to claim his 
►brethren's love, and they cast him out of their cities — 
they watch his steps with spies, and hire assassins to 
betray him. He comes to claim a throne in grateful 



THE "KINGDOM OF CHRIST. » 

hearts, and they raise a fiendish shout, and make it 
reach the very heavens, "Away with him, away with 
him, Crucify him, crucify him! We will have no king 
but Caesar." Then they spit on the man of Nazareth; 
they array him in purple, and in mockery they bow the 
knee, deriding God's holy and devoted Son. "Yet he 
bore our griefs and carried our sorrows; for the transgres- 
sion of my people was he stricken, bruised and afflicted. 
He made his soul an offering for sin, that he might see a 
seed, and prolong his days, and that the pleasure of the 
Lord might prosper in his hands." We are redeemed, 
not with corruptible things, as silver and gold, but with 
the precious blood of Christ. We sold ourselves for 
nought, and have been redeemed without money. This 
redemption forms the burden of the glorious songs of 
praise, which the exalted elders sing, crying, Worthy is 
the Lamb who has redeemed us to God, out of every kin- 
dred and tongue, and people, and nation; while ten 
thousand times ten thousand saints and angels respond 
in joyful acclamations, saying, Worthy the Lamb thai 
was slain. 

The atoning nature of the Messiah's sufferings is the 
peculiar theme of revelation. The sacrifices of heathen 
nations — the ceremonial observances of the Jewish law, 
and the declarations of the Gospel; all yield their testi- 
mony to the establishment of this one great truth, that, 
"without shedding of blood there is no remission of sin." 
It is not the physical nature of the sufferings of Christ, 
but the character of the person who endured them, which 
makes revelation so wonderful. Many a martyr endu- 
red a death more lingering, and apperently more terrible, 
than did the Saviour of the world; yet all their torments 
could not unburden their souls of the guilt of a single 
gin; much less save a world. It is the high character of 
the sufferer which stamps efficacy upon the atonement, 
and enables us to rest on it with confidence, convincing 
us that the blood of Christ cleanses from all sin, and that 
Jesus is able to save to the uttermost all that come to 
God by him. Take away the divine nature of Christ, 
and you strip the Gospel of everything that is peculiar 
to it. There is left a splendid panorama of miracles 
and sufferings which may dazzle the mind for a moment; 



10 



THE KINGDOM OF CHRIST-. 



but can never give strong consolation to Chose who have 
fled for refuge to the hope set before them: their faith has 
no solid foundation, no Rock of Ages to rest upon. — 
Dismal and doubtful indeed must be the soul which enters 
the dark swellings of Jordan, having no fountain of 
purification, no robes of righteousness, no hope of par- 
don, no anchor of the soul, but the merits of a fallible 
and erring creature. 

From the sufferings of Christ for our redemption, we 
should try to form a more correct idea of the value of 
a human soul. Thousands prefer uncertain riches, 
fleeting pleasures, and empty glory, to the happiness of 
their immortal souls, whilst the Son of God, looking 
upon the danger, and sympathising with the miseries of 
fallen humanity, rises from his throne, dismantles him- 
self of his celestial glory, assumes our nature, and 
betakes himself to the mountains of Gallilee, endures 
the agony of Gethsemene's garden, and at last expires 
on Calvary, amidst the insults of a wicked multitude, that 
he might save lost and perishing men. Awake, ye 
drowsy disciples! Let us kindle our zeal at the flame 
of Christ's disinterested love, and hasten to pluck brands 
out of the burning, and carry the message of redeem- 
ing love to e very region where sinners are perishing for 
lack of knowledge. 

When Jesus died, his personal toils for human salva- 
tion were ended. He could say, "It is finished." The 
types and sacrifices of the Jewish law had found their 
antitype, and, like the stars, they passed away before 
the rising sun. He had then brought in an everlasting 
righteousness, and made reconciliation for iniquity. — 
The heathen were now given to him for an inheritance, 
and the uttermost parts of the earth for his possession. 
The isles were indeed in prophetic vision waiting for his 
law. But darkness still covers the earth, and gross 
darkness the minds of the people. In Judea, bigotry, 
intolerance and moral corruption were leagued together. 
Among the Gentiles, superstition had her chosen seat; 
for four thousand years her power had been unchecked, 
and her sway undisputed. 

Profligacy and crime walked abroad at noonday, and 
perpetrated their wrongs in the very temples of the gods, 



THE KINGDOM OF~ CHRIST. IT. 

and in the name of outraged religion. The minds of 
men, at length, were roused to doubts of the wisdom of 
the past and to vague hopes of the future. The high- 
way of nations was opened by the conquest of Alexander, 
and the after countermarchings of the Roman legions. 
All things were arranging themselves for a mighty crisis 
in human history, when the Spirit of God descended in 
tongues of flame upon the chosen ambassadors of the 
now exalted King in Zion. Wonderful was the unfold- 
ing of God's wisdom, love and power, as the true plan 
of redeeming mercy sank into the Apostle's hearts, 
thrilled through their whole frame, and set their very 
tongues on fire. 

They girded themselves for the conflict; and the hosts 
of darkness trembled for the issue. They spoke, and 
truth, sharper than a two edged sword, and more power- 
ful than the burning eloquence of Demosthenes, smote 
conviction into the hearts of their bitterest opposers. 
Christ conquered, and Jerusalem was taken. But their 
enemies, far from being all subdued, only rallied with 
dying phrensy to the conflict. Dark, terrible and pitiless 
came the storm upon the infant church, and the children 
of light were again scattered before the face of the 
opposition. They went every where, preaching the 
word; — the love of God towards a guilty world — the 
Messiahship of Jesus — and the coming retribution 
formed their soul-stirring themes. God's power was in 
their words, and his spirit attended all their arguments. 
The mystery, hid from ages, was at length unfolded to 
an astonished world. Kings shut their mouths, and 
princes were confounded at their speech of wondrous 
import. Humanity, sick and miserable, had been crying 
often to heaven for a deliverer, and lo! a deliverer is 
here. Philosophers had been often wishing for a divine 
instructor, and the very fountain of true philosophy was 
now unsealed, and its waters were flowing to refresh 
the earth. Oh, the then thousand longings of sin bur- 
dened souls for pardon, peace and love divine. 

Come, hungry souls! and eat, for these Apostles have 
loaves enough for all the multitude. And they came, 
from Judea, Gallilee, and Samaria; from Corinth, Rome, 
and Ephesus, there came to Christ a hungry multitude. 



12 THE KINGDOM OF CHRIST. 

and feasted themselves on the bread of life, that cams 
down from God. But in every city where these Apostles 
came, the sounds of w r ar were heard. Satan would not 
resign his power without a struggle. He had wrestled 
forty days with giant strength against the Lord of life 
and glory in the wilderness. He had stirred all the 
energies of earth and hell, to kill the Lord's anoint- 
ed. Herod, Pilate, Priest and multitude had rushed, 
through his influence, to the conflict, and had been 
defeated; yet he gave not up the contest. The 
prison doors were opened, to receive w T ithin their walls 
these earth-disturbing Apostles. The sword was drawn 
from its scabbard to drink the blood of the saints. The 
fires of persecution were lighted, and the benign aspect 
of a Roman judge w r as changed into the savage grin of 
an Inquisitor. Long was the victory doubtful, and the 
armies of heaven gathered around to view the unequal 
conflict. On the one side, an angry world, with all 
its w T ealth, learning and conquering armies: on the other 
a feeble band of Christians, speaking the truth, and 
calling upon God to help them. O spirit of the proph- 
ets! help me to unfold the sympathies of heaven, ex- 
pended upon that feeble, suffering, valiant and denying 
church. Where are now the heroes of Marathon and 
Leuctra? They fell, and Greece was saved. And 
here, fallen, are a host of earth's noblest sons and 
daughters. They were slain for the word of God and 
the testimony of the Most High. But truth could not be 
slain, and it triumphed, through its glorious author, the 
God of truth. Temples were demolished, sacrifices lay 
unoffered, pagan abominations retired before the glory 
of the Gospel, and a Christianized world prepared her- 
self soon to forget the power and means by which her 
regeneration had been accomplished. 

What priceless estimate, then, shall we set upon this 
church? It has cost the blood of Christ, and the death 
of ten thousand martyrs, and the toils and prayers and 
tears of all the holy servants of the Lord. Shall we not 
cherish it, as we do the apple of our eye, and feed it 
with the pure milk of the word, as the mother nourishes 
the babe of her bosom. And when we die, and go to 
the chuch above, shall we not bequeath its pure law T s 



THE KINGDOM OF CHRIST. 13 

and ordinances to our children, as their best birthright 
and greatest safeguard in life. 

III. I promised to mention some things which have 
tended to identify Christ's Kingdom with the kingdoms 
of this world. 

1 . Infant Baptism, has, in this way been attended with 
most injurious results. It has neither precept nor ex- 
ample in the New Testament. The multitudes who 
came to John were baptized of him in Jordan, confessing 
their sins; and his baptism is described as a baptism of 
repentance, by way of preparation for the coming of 
the Messiah. 

Wherever confession of sin, and reformation of life 
are required, infants, from the very nature of the case, 
can in no way comply with the conditions, and there- 
fore the ablest commentators have concluded that John 
did not baptize infants. The commission of Christ also 
enjoins baptism, only upon the believer. Its language 
is, "He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved." 
Wherever, then, we can find a taught and believing 
infant, we are authorized by this great commission to 
baptize it; but until such a wonder appears, to meet the 
requirements laid down, we should forbear. It is surely 
better to follow the plain examples of the Apostles, who 
first converted three thousand, and then baptized them; 
and afterwards baptized both men and women, who be- 
lieved the things that were spoken, than to do an act in 
the name of the Lord, for which we have no authority 
in the great law book of Christ's Kingdom. 

Now, however, the baptism of believers is almost en- 
tirely disused, and the unconscious babe is carried into 
the church of God, without either knowledge, faith or 
feeling; not through any qualifications of its own, but 
on the ground of a senseless fiction, by which a parent 
or sponsor, professes faith and obedience in its name; 
but utterly without its authority. 

This practice is generally justified and apologized for, 
by the course of the Jewish law in the reception of in- 
fants, through circumcision. The Jews, however, could 
plead a clear and express law to justify their practice. 
We can find none such in the new covenant. The Jew- 
ish church was made up of the seed of Abraham; but 

2 



14 THE KINGDOM OF CHRIStV 

Christians are born, not of blood, nor of the will of the 
flesh, but of God. "They are born again." There is a 
new covenant and an old one; a national church, and a 
church that is spiritual, and not of this world. We look 
for better promises than those offered to the Jew, and 
higher qualifications are required of us, in order to their 
enjoyment. Therefore, John introduces the new order 
of things by repelling the Scribes and Pharisees from 
his baptism. Think not, said he, to say within your- 
selves, we have Abraham to our father; for I tell you 
that God is able of these stones to raise up children 
unto Abraham. And now, also, the axe m laid at the 
root of the tree, therefore the tree that bringeth not 
forth good fruit is hewn down and cast into the fire. 

This principle Is in perfect harmony with a covenant in 
which the laws of God were to be written in men's hearts 
in which Christ was to be the head of a great spiritual 
empire, and faith the principle of vital union between 
Christ and all the members of his body. This principle 
saves the church of God from the incumbent weight of 
a mass of unregenerate members. It places Christian- 
ity, not upon the footing of an accidental birth in Britain 
or a parentage who were pious; but upon our own un- 
derstanding of its glorious truths, and our own free 
submission to its holy precepts. Wherever infant bap- 
tism has prevailed, its issue has been to Christianize 
the world, without either faith or piety. Blood spilling 
warriors have hurried crowds of vanquished pagans to 
the baptismal waters, as ignorant of the spirit of our 
holy religion, as the sheep that are driven into the fold 
for slaughter. These baptized pagans have then carried 
their unconscious babes to the font, in the same spirit 
of superstition, that would have led them to a holy 
well, or to the charm of some reputed sorcerer. By 
this course the true principles of faith are lost sight of, 
and the policy of priests and kings becomes the spring 
of church action. The heavenly beauty of Christ's 
kingdom is effaced; and, full of deformities, and lording 
it over the consciences of men, the church merits and 
receives rather our loathing than love, 

2. The want of discipline which is suffered to exist In 
many of the churches, by admitting the careless and 



THE KINGDOM OF CHRIST. 15 

profane to the ordinances of the Gospel, has given a 
worldly character to Christ's Kingdom. There was little 
attractive, nay, almost everything repulsive about the 
churches of Christ in Apostolic times. Those who em- 
braced the new religion were called to endure the hatred 
and detestation of even their own relatives, and the 
most bitter persecution from the rest of the world. — 
Their open profession of Christianity was frequently a 
signal for their being subjected to the torture, or led to 
the flames. Under these circumstances, we may be 
assured that few of those whose hearts were unchanged 
by the religion of Jesus would think of professing a 
system which was so unpopular, and required of them 
so many sacrifices. The primitive Christians were 
closely united to each other, not only by their mutual 
love; but by the influence of their common danger; — a 
well defined line of separation was drawn between 
them and the rest of the world, and names were applied 
to them which were accurately descriptive of their real 
character. Thus Paul, when addressing one of his 
epistles to the church at Corinth, says, that "they were 
sanctified in Christ Jesus, called to be saints;" and to 
the church of the Thessalonians he says, that "he gave 
thanks to God always, knowing their election of God." 
But, ray friends, you are well aware, that our circum- 
stances are now very different. It is not only safe, but 
even fashionable in this age, to make a profession of 
Christianity; in many instances it becomes the high road 
to wealth, dignity, and official character. Although 
pure religion and undefiled before God is rarely met 
with, yet the mass of the people seem to entertain the 
idea that ordinances of the church are their birth-right, 
and denominate themselves Christians by a fiction of 
law. Our position, then, has become widely different 
from that of the Apostles, and we must be guided, in 
determining our course, partly by what we know of the 
spiritual nature of Christ's Kingdom, and partly by the 
conduct of the Apostles in cases nearly similar. That 
great and flagrant transgressors should be excommuni- 
cated, all churches are willing to admit, although some 
of them seem more ready to hold the principle than to 
reduce it to practice. Supposing, then, that upon this 



16 THE KINGDOM OF CHRIST. 

point there is no difference, at least of opinion, among 
Christians, I shall proceed to inquire how the false teach*- 
er, the lordly tyrant, and the scoffing worldling should 
be treated when their true character becomes known. 
It appears that false teachers had found their way into 
the churches of Galatia, and were leading the brethren 
away from Christ, and teaching them to depend for 
salvation upon the law of Moses. Of these, Paul says, 
"I would that they were even cut off which trouble you." 
John, in his Third General Epistle, speaks of one Dio- 
trephes, who had become vainly puffed up, and refused 
admittance even to the Apostles, and he threatens, 
when he comes, to remember his deeds. In the Acts of 
the Apostles, we are told that Simon, a sorcerer, having 
believed, was baptised, and continued with Philip, and 
wondered — beholding the miracles and signs which 
were done. But, when afterwards he evinced the hol- 
lo wness of his pretensions, by offering money in exchange 
for the power of communicating the Holy Spirit, he 
received from Peter such a rebuke as ought to teach 
church officers how they should deal with those who 
have only a name to live, while they are spiritually dead. 
From these passages it appears evident that the 
Apostles were not always satisfied with mere profession, 
but that they attended strictly to the grand maxim of 
Jesus, "By their fruits ye shall know them." I do aaot 
mean by what I have here said, to assert, that accom- 
plished hypocrites may not creep into the best regulated 
Christian societies; and far am I from supposing that 
church officers are, in that case, responsible; but surely 
this ought not to be used as a pretext for admitting 
those who scarcely take the trouble of becoming hypo- 
crites, who are known to live without God in the world; 
who coldly and carelessly go through the forms of reli- 
gion, because those around them are engaged in a 
similar exercise, and who appear to be Christians, not 
idolators, only because they have been born in Britain, 
not in India. Some there have been, who, not content 
with tolerating, have attempted to defend the admission 
of worldly, unconverted men into the church of Christ. 
To accomplish this apparently desirable object, they 
have subjected to the torture, the parable of the tares, 



THE KINGDOM OF CHRIST. 17 

and in utter defiance of the assertion of Jesus himself, 
that the field is the world, they have daringly told us 
that it must be the church: but even if Jesus had not 
expounded this parable to us himself, who is there bo 
dull of understanding as not to perceive, at a glance, 
that it was not spoken about church discipline, but di- 
rected against that persecuting spirit, to which even the 
disciples manifested such an inclination on one occa- 
sion? A spirit which has since invented all the horrid 
tortures of the Romish Inquisitions, inflicted unheard-of 
woes upon the Puritans of England, and the Presbyte- 
rians of Scotland, and is now flickering in its last expi- 
ring, fitful glare previous to its final dissolution. We 
are also told that the admission of unbelievers into 
Christian churches is a great advantage to them, as the 
ordinances are the proper means of grace. Yes, it is 
to them what the sighing of the hollow wind and the 
rocking of the restless billows are to the toil-worn 
mariner; they lull him into still more calm repose, until 
his frail vessel is dashed upon the rocks and swallowed 
up forever. This is the sweet and syren voice of Satan, 
assuming the form of an angel of light, soothingly 
saving, peace, peace, while there is no peace with God; 
healing the wounds of sin slightly, and teaching men to 
depend on the power of the church, instead of drawing- 
near to God through the truth, and trusting in th<i 
merits of a crucified Redeemer. The saying of Jesus, 
that the men of this world are, in their generation. 
wiser than the children of light, is remarkably verified 
in respect to this subject. In all societies and associa- 
tions of a worldly nature, care is taken that admission 
be given to those only who are known to be favorably 
disposed towards the objects held in view. Men of tlii 
world are jealous of any infringement upon their pre- 
rogatives, and careful of their rights. The strength of 
its Avails and bravery of its troops, may defend a city 
against the attack of encircling legions; but it is well 
known, that, if the enemy be once admitted within the 
gates, and mix with the beseiged, resistance is vain, and 
destruction certain. Shall then, the citizens of ourZion 
set open their gates, and permit enemies bent on sub- 
version, to enter within its walls: — shall thevfall asleep 



18 THE KINGDOM OF CHRIST. 

at their posts, and allow the wild boars, from the woods, 
to break down the hedges, and trample the grapes of 
Christ's vineyard? No! they know that the dangerous 
contagion of the world's example would quickly spread 
itself among the brethren, that the deadly weight of its 
influence would retard the aggressive movements of the 
faithful, and that their beloved pastors would soon be 
compelled to cast into the shade, the strong features of 
the Gospel, lest they should give offence to what might 
be an influential portion of their members. 

3. Christ has not authorised his followers to use car- 
nal weapons in the extension of his kingdom. He has 
drawn this inference himself, in the conclusion of the 
verse from which I have taken my text, — "If my king- 
dom were of this world then would my servants fight, 
that I should not be delivered to the Jews." But perhaps 
some one may be ready to ask, why then did he tell his 
disciples to provide themselves with weapons of defence? 
It is often very difficult to answer such questions a 
these. If the pen of Inspiration has not left us a hint 
to guide us, our own attempts at explanation will very 
seldom be satisfactory; yet, we think that it is in our 
power to give at least a probable answer. When an 
unarmed and defenceless party are attacked, there is no 
virtue in their submi.sion, because, in their circumstan- 
ces resistance would be in vain. Jesus wished to set an 
example to all his followers, of the patience with which 
they ought to suffer persecution; for this purpose, it was 
necessary that he should yield, not when resistance was 
out of the question, but when his disciples were in a 
condition to defend themselves. The power which he 
exercised over his enemies in causing them to go back- 
wards and fall to the ground, proves, demonstratively, 
that his object was to convince all men that this submis- 
sion was entirely voluntary, and that he could have 
overcome any force which his enemies might have been 
able to bring against him. We always find it much ea- 
sier to inculcate principles, than to reduce them to prac- 
tice 4 . In a time of peace, it is easy to declaim about 
non-resistance, but, where is the man, who, when his 
life or liberty is at stake, is ready to act upon these 
views: — Jesus, however, seizes the moment of danger, in 



THE KINGDOM OF CHRIST. 10 

order to give to his disciples a practical illustration of 
the power of the principle; and to guard them against 
future mistakes upon this subject; he warns them "That 
all they that can take the sword shall perish with the 
sword." The doctrine which we have stated, is also 
plainly taught in the x. chap, of Paul's second epistle to 
the Corinthians, where he says, "Though we walk in the 
flesh; we do not war after the flesh, for the weapons of 
our warfare -are not carnal, but mighty through God, to 
the pulling down of strongholds." Whilst Christians 
relied upon the spiritual armor which Christ had provid- 
ed for them, their assaults upon the dominion of the 
Prince of darkness were crowned with signal success,— 
but when they had recourse to the sword to aid their ar- 
guments — when marshalled host encountered host, and 
caused the battle-field to overflow with human bloody — 
Religion, shocked at the cruelties perpetrated in her 
name, extended her pinions, and returned to the peace- 
ful mansions of the skies. In w T hat is called a religious 
war, victory may be gained by the Christian power; the 
vanquished nation may lay aside the emblems of their 
former superstition, and become converts to what wears 
the semblance of true religion; but their love of national 
independence, their sympathy with the sufferings of those 
who have fallen in the conflict, and their detestation of 
the barbarities perpetrated in the name of Jesus, all 
oonspire to bar the way against the entrance of the Gos- 
pel to their hearts, to associate Christianity in their minds, 
with painful feelings of degradation and dependance, 
and to leave them, if possible, farther from salvation than 
they were before. The wisdom of God is gloriously dis- 
played in making the preaching of the Gospel the grand 
instrument in turning sinners from the error of their 
ways; the simple story of the Redeemers sufferings finds 
an entrance into the heart, and, while the understanding 
isj enlightened, gratitude and love, the most powerful 
principles which actuate human nature; are enlisted on 
the side of truth, and become the instruments of a com- 
plete moral renovation. 

4. Civil establishments of religion have been injuri- 
mis to Christianity, by giving a worldly character to the 
Church of the Redeemer. 



20 THE KINGDOM OF CHRIST. 

The Word of God comes to us attested by its own in- 
ternal excellence, the records of history, and the effects 
which follow its reception. A rational being must exam- 
ine these witnesses, and if satisfied that it comes from 
God, he is compelled at once to receive it, and submit to 
its authority. It ought to be well understood, that in 
this process there is no place given to human authority. 
All that it has to do, is merely to give its testimony as a 
witness about a matter of fact, viz: — Whether the mira- 
cles related in the Scriptures were really performed. — - 
Attention to this circumstances will enable you, my 
friends, to perceive that the decrees of councils or the 
laws of nations cannot add a single iota to the weight of 
divine testimony, or in any way increase the evidences 
of the truth of the Christian religion. It was quite nat- 
ural for Paganism and Romanism to court the sanction 
of earthly power, because they had not the authority of 
God. In these systems, it was a matter of no importance 
w T hether the people obeyed from the influence of fear or 
©f conviction: but, in Christianity, motive is every thing. 
If an individual obey the precepts of the Gospel merely 
because they have the sanction of the government un- 
der which he lives, this is equivalent to a rejection of 
them before God, and he is as far from salvation as the 
professed infidel. If this reasoning be correct, it will 
follow, that legislative enactments in favor of religion, 
are not only useless, but presumptuous; that while they 
cannot tend to the promotion of Christianity they must 
foster hypocrisy, — and hypocrisy in its turn, will lend ita 
aid to encourage scepticism and infidelity. This conclu- 
sion is fully borne out by the history of establishments. 
Wherever religion has been removed from its proper 
foundation, the proofs of its truth, and placed upon the 
basis of hunan enactments and political expediency, it 
may thereby have gained a name to live, but it soon be- 
comes spiritually dead. The fear of punishment, or the 
expectation of the emolument may cause it apparently 
to make progress for a little, but it is only the delusive 
strength which the dying creature gains a short time be- 
fore the awful moment of dissolution. 

The essence of establishments is now generally sup- 
posed to consist in the support which the State provide* 



THE KINGDOM OF CHRIST. "21 

for the ministers of religion. This mode of support I 
consider to be objectionable in many respects. Com- 
plete independence of every earthly power, is the birth- 
right of the Christian church. For no temporal advan- 
tage ought she, like Esau, to part with that liberty with 
which God has endued her. Granting, then, for a mo- 
ment, that State support might be of use to a church 
while she was weak and feeble, that support is too dear- 
ly purchased if a secular influence is thereby introduced 
— aa influence which tends to make the ministers 
of the Gospel haughty towards the people, and 
courteous to the party who may hold the reins of 
political power, which represses their zeal and ac- 
tivity, a&d prevents them from reforming the abuses 
under which the church may be laboring. You 
have, no doubt, observed, my friends, in reading the 
Word of God, that the Kingdom of Christ is there repre- 
sented as warring against the world — as having no fel- 
lowship with the unfruitful works of darkness — as being 
hated and persecuted, even as Jesus once w x as — is it then 
probable that it should be left dependent in the smallest 
degree upon the world for support? No system can be 
perfect which does not contain within itself a provision 
for its extension. If it be dependent upon extraneous 
supplies, these may be withheld, and the whole machine- 
ry will thus be stopped. The Church of England has 
never been upheld by her own efforts, but is supported 
by the compulsory taxation of the whole nation. These 
revenues are now given with reluctance; and this appears 
to be the secret of the party war-whoop — "the church is 
in danger." It is very true, that the rest of the commu- 
nity are giving her intelligible hints., that she shall not be 
supported by them much longer; — but why did she ren- 
der herself a pensioner of the public? and how can she 
now consistently complain of the false position in which 
she voluntarily placed herself? A church formed upon 
the Apostolic model, can never be in danger; because, 
she contains within herself a provision for her own wants. 
By the smiles and applause of the world, she is not ex- 
alted; and by its frowns, she is not depressed. It is very 
easy for the Christian, whose only wish is to know his 
Master's will, to determine this question; — he can appeal 



22 THE KINGDOM OF CHRIST. 

directly to the statute-law of the kingdom,. What land 
of support has Christ provided for his ministering ser- 
vants? A satisfactory answer to this question will be 
found in Paul's Epistle to the Galatians, at the sixth c, 
and, sixth v. — "Let him that is taught in word and doc- 
trine communicate to him that teaeheth in all good 
things." Here is a law of Christ's Kingdom providing 
means for the Christian minister's support;; and who shall 
dare to question the propriety of 'the enactment, or as- 
sert, that this supply is insufficient? Here is a duty 
which Christians are called upon to perform; and I would 
wish to know how a State has got the power to exoner- 
ate them from this duty, or alter its nature? Let those 
who rail at the Voluntary Principle, although willing 
sometimes to resort to it themselves, bring forward a 
passage as expressly authorising State support as this 
one does Voluntaryism, and I shall seal my lips in eter- 
nal silence; but, if they cannot do this, let them remem- 
ber that their attempts at ridicule must either recoil with 
disgrace upon their own heads, or fall direct upon a stat- 
ute law of Christ's Kingdom. 

An attempt has been made to bring the laws of politi- 
cal economy to bear upon this subject, and the advocates 
Off establishments, triumphantly tell us, that the want 
of Christian knowledge does not create a demand for it. 
This is perfectly true, — but, does it therefore follow, that 
no other means can be found for sending the Gospel to 
those who are not wishing for it, than the aid of the 
state? Was the great founder of Christianity not well 
aware, that the want of the Gospel did not create a de- 
mand, — that perishing sinners would not come to it un- 
less it were carried to them? and yet, he never once 
intimates that civil government was to become the 
means of diffusing it — No, he had provided fortius want 
in the nature of the Gospel. The Gospel is a concen- 
tration of universal benevolence. When the heart is 
created anew in Christ Jesus, a powerful principle of 
love to man is infused, a principle which never had an 
existence in our selfish systems of political economy: — 
the wretch who before cared nothing for the happiness of 
his race, or was only employed in scattering misery 
arouudhim, touched now with feelings of compassion, i» 



THE KItfGt>0M OF CHRI3TV 25? 

ready to sacrifice every worldly advantage, that he fnay 
pluck his fellow-sinners as-brands from the burning, ex- 
periencing in his own bosom the peace and consolation 
which the Gospel can impart, he becomes like Paul, 
ready, so far as in him lies, to share with others these 
delightful feelings. Let none suppose that this princi- 
ple of love is not fully adequate to the evangelization of 
the world. It was sufficient in the Apostolic age, to 
spread the glad tidings of salvation through the wide 
extent of the Roman empire, and to plant every where 
Christian Churches in defiance of the combined powers 
of earth and hell; and, when now, in our favored times, 
it has again beamed forth in pristine glory, giving an 
impetus to the Protectant Churches, of these lands, and 
causing them to shake off the slumbers of ages: this 
change came not by increasing the amount of govern- 
ment aid or by enacting new laws in favor cf religion, 
but by a closer intercourse with the Spirit of peace and 
righteousness, breathing upon us in the sacred volume, 
teaching us to love our neighbors as ourselves, directing 
our activity into a thousand different channels of philan- 
thropic or missionary exertion, and causing the Gospel 
to wing its way to the most distant region of the globe. 
Let us then, my brethren, by faithful warnings, labour to 
induce the established churches to give up their con- 
nexion with the kings of the earth, and by our earnest 
prayers to a throne of grace, become the blessed instru- 
ments in hastening on the time when they shall stand 
forth gloriously in their spiritual and heavenly character. 
When, instead of appearing as a mere machinery for 
communicating public instruction, lowering the blood- 
stained banner of the cross, and crouching at a monarch's 
foot-stool, they shall spurn the blasphemous idea of per- 
mitting any fellow-mortal to share with Jesus the throne 
of his kingdom. When, instead of bedecking themselves 
with the perishing vanities of this world's grandeur, they 
shall be adorned with the heaven-born graces of the 
Spirit, and putting on the righteousness of their risen 
Redeemer, come up through the wilderness of this world 
leaning on their best beloved, fair as the moon, clear as 
the sun, and terrible as an army with banners. 



THE CORN LAWS, UNJUST AND INJURIOUS: 

An Address to the People of Great Britain, by John Young, 
Minister of the Gospel, Andover, Hampshire, England. — 

THIRD EDITION. 



The Author of the following pages was preparing to lecture upon the 
Corn Laws, when a dissolution of Parliament was announced as at hand. 
It Was supposed that upon the eve of a contested election, the feelings of 
the people were too much excited to hear a lecture with profit, he was 
therefore requested to put his views before the public in the form of a 
Pamphlet. In acceding to this request, the Author regrets that the 
subject was so far removed from the range of his usual studies, and the 
time afforded for its preparation so short as to leave it much more imper- 
fect than he could have wished. 



My Countrymen: — I understand that many entertain 
a strong prejudice, against Christian Ministers touching 
upon any subject which may have a political aspect. — 
This feeling I regard as exceedingly unjust towards the 
class to w T hom I have the honor to belong. It is, I think, 
generally acknowledged, that Christian Ministers are a 
self-denying, laborious class of men, who have devoted 
their lives to the promotion of the happiness of their 
fellow-creatures, without expecting ever to reap any 
large amount of temporal reward; and shall they alone, 
of all the community, be scowled upon for exercising 
their civil functions and claiming their political rights? 
Shall they alone be shackled by prejudice and frightened 
by clamor from using their influence as citizens for the 
promotion of the well-being of their fellow-men? They, 
as w T ell as others, have families, dependent upon legisla- 
tion for protection, — they have interests, to them impor- 
tant, involved in the peace and happiness of their native 
land, — they have influence imparted to them from the 
sphere in which they move, and the education and tal- 
ents which they must be supposed to possess; and are 
they not under solemn responsibility to God and their 
Country, to use their utmost effort for the promotion of 
universal happiness and universal freedom. They have 



THE CORN LAWS, UNJUST AND INJURIOUS. 25 

already heard the cry of the oppressed Negro, torn from 
his native land, and worked to death on the tread-mill 
in Jamaica; and when they raised their voices in hit? 
behalf, they were successful, and his chains burst from 
around him. Now, the sufferings and poverty in their 
native land claim their sympathy — the widow and fath- 
erless, appeal to them against their oppressors — the 
cause of humanity needs their support, and sure I am 
that these claims can not be disregarded with impunity. 
Often has Christianity been injured and abused by it* 
professed followers; in all ages it has been injured by 
cruel deeds of war, perpetrated in its name, though not 
under its sanction; it has been abused by being continu- 
ally thrust forward against progressing science, although 
against science it has uttered no anathema; and now 1 
fear it will again be injured in the estimation of many, 
by the established Clergy of these lands, marshaling 
themselves on the side of monopoly, oppression and 
injustice. This may arise from their aristocratic con- 
nections, their interest in landed property, and their usual 
want of sympathy with the masses of the community; 
but from Christianity it can not arise; our pure religion 
is founded upon the basis of eternal justice. The reli- 
gion of him who appointed a seventh years' rest in 
Judea, that the poor might eat the fruit of the land, and 
proclaimed a jubilee, that the wanderer might enter upon 
his paternal estate, can never league itself with tyrants, 
against the rights of men. The Almighty Redeemer, 
who pitied the hunger of his hearers, and covered the 
grassy carpet with enlarged loaves, that thousands might 
have food, can never smile upon his ministers for being 
advocates of high prices, and a confined supply. If, 
then, one class of Christian ministers are likely to set 
themselves against the anti-Corn Law movement, does 
it not thereby become doubly imperative upon all others 
to do justice to the merciful genius of our holy religion, 
by pointing public attention to that book which pro- 
nounces blessings on those who remember the poor, and 
holds the thunder of Heaven over those who oppress 
the hireling in his wages. On these grounds, I feel that, 
in coming forward at the present important crisis, to set 
before you the injurious effects of our Corn Laws, I am 
V 3 



S6 THE CORN LAWS, 

only performing a duty to which I am called by my 
desire to promote the benevolent spirit of true feligion, 
and to increase the happiness of my fellow men. One 
of the master evils under which this country has groan- 
ed for many years, has been Class legislation. Our 
rulers did not receive legislative authority from the na- 
tion, that they might thereby deck themselves with the 
spoils of a plundered people; that they might minister to 
their own ambition, and enrich their friends with the 
property of the public. Yet, alas! they always thus 
have acted; and whether they give a lordly pension to 
useless members of the aristocracy, or keep up the in- 
creasing wealth of our Jamaica planters, at the expense 
of the British sugar consumer; or enlarge the rent roll of 
the landed proprietors, by a bread tax laid upon the 
whole nation besides; they can always find some exten- 
uating circumstance to plead for an exception to the 
general rule of equal justice. I think I am right in 
asserting, that throughout the whole department of 
Class legislation, there is no measure which presses so 
heavily upon the prosperity and comfort of the people, 
as the monopoly which our law has given to British corn 
growers. Bread has been rightly termed, the Staff of 
Life; a thing without which we seem scarcely able to 
exist; a commodity, the scarcity and high price of which 
must greatly substract from the comforts enjoyed by all 
classes, who grow not corn for themselves. Yet, in our 
otherwise highly favored country, the price of wheat, for 
some years past, has been above 60s. per quarter, while 
in America, and the markets of the continents of Europe, 
it can be purchased of equal quality for 30s. Here is 
an astounding difference. How comes it? Simply by 
our Government having handed the British people over 
to the tender mercies of land owners, and prohibited us 
from purchasing this necessary of life in a free and open 
market. 

Now, the first argument I will urge against this law, 
shall be, its gross and glaring injustice. When a de- 
mand is made upon the whole millions of this mighty 
empire, to pay from 15 to 2 )$. per quarter more for the 
staple article of human existence, than it could be pro- 
cured for by free trade surely that demand ought to t>* 






UNJUST AND INJURIOUS. 



27 



♦enforced by very sound and weighty reasons. If this 
awfully heavy tax had been imposed with a view to rev- 
enue, that it might go to the payment of the expenses 
of our Government, then, oppressive though it be, we 
might have submitted to its continued infliction; but ex- 
tremely little of it goes into the treasury of the nation; 
the duty is too high to be useful for purposes of revenue, 
and operates generally as a total prohibition to the 
importation of foreign corn, while it goes almost entirely 
into the purses of our aristocracy, in the shape of in- 
creased rent for the soil. We have no dislike to the 
landed proprietors of Britain. If they arc rich and 
happy, we rejoice at it; but humanity and justice forbid, 
heaven and earth forbid, that they should continue to 
levy upon the hard working peasantry and manufactu- 
rers of England, a tax of upwards of £50,000,000 annu- 
ally, a sum equal to the revenue of the whole nation. 
This seems bad enough, yet a still darker hue of injus- 
tice appears, in the unequal manner in which this tax 
falls upon the different ranks of the community; the poor 
man, who lives upon the proceeds of his daily labor, can 
not afford to procure much animal food for himself and 
family, and the luxuries and delicacies of foreign coun- 
tries are almost utterly beyond his reach; according, 
then, to the ratio of his poverty, he is compelled to de- 
pend the more completely upon bread, and thus upon 
the lower orders of the people the Corn Law tax presses 
most heavily, while in proportion to the luxuries which 
their wealth can command, are the rich and noble ex- 
empted from its pressure. In the history of human 
injustice, it is scarcely ever found that deeds like these 
are done openly, and with acknowledged motive. The 
highwayman plunders, not in the light of day, but under 
the favoring darkness of the night; and if the rights of 
humanity are to be outraged — if a nation is to be rob- 
bed of the fruits of its industry, some specious sophisms 
must be found, under cover of whiqh, a tax may be 
levied upon the nation at large for the benefit of the 
few. With this object in view, our rulers have been 
zealous on all occasions, to instil into our minds, the 
doctrine that the Corn Laws are neccssaiy as a protec- 
tion to our agricultural interests, Thjy are always 



28 THE CORN LAWS, 

accustomed to laud agriculture to the skies, as the basis 
of England's glory, and the sheet anchor of her future 
happiness. Well, methinks, if our agricultural interests 
are so mighty amd important, that they are presumed to 
have raised us to a pre-eminence among nations, they 
ought to be so firm and healthy, that they could stand 
without the support of crutches, and so profitable in 
themselves, as not to require the nation to pay a provis- 
ion rate for their peculiar advantage. Surely it is not 
well that Britain's prosperity should be supposed to de- 
pend upon an interest said to be so decrepit of itself, 
that it needs to be pillowed up by artificial legislation. 
To encourage British agriculture! does this mean to put 
the farmer into a position in which he shall be able well 
to cultivate the ground, and have a fair profit from his 
business? Then this always should be done: but w^hat 
else is necessary, than for the lord of the soil to charge 
only such an amount of rent as the average price of 
Corn in the markets of the w^ofid will allow the tenants 
to give. The landlords, at all times, have it in their 
power to encourage agriculture, by forbearing to levy 
too high a rent upon the land, yet, instead of taking this 
obvious and common sense method of promoting farm- 
ing interests, they contrived to pass a law by which the 
farmer was pensioned upon the public; and, eagerly as 
the eagle watches for its prey, have they observed the 
rising markets, that they might pounce upon the farmer 
and fleece him of all the benefits of the Corn Laws, by 
increasing their own rent rolls. Has the rent of land 
been largely increasing during the last twenty years? 
Then it is obvious that British agriculture could have 
succeeded well without the assistance of these laws, 
and that their operation has not been to benefit the 
farmer, but to increase rents at the expense of the con- 
suming public. Frequent appeals are made to farmers 
upon this question, as if all our efforts were directed 
against them; yet a little cool reflection might convince 
any one, that this is not a farmer's, but a landlord's 
question, and that, instead of being benefitted, the 
tenant is placed in the most precarious circumstances, 
by our present Corn Laws. By confining the mar- 
ket, they cause the prices to rise and fall with great 



UNJUST AND INJURIOUS. 39 

rapidity, and thus the farmer, when proposing a 
rent for land, is placing his all in a state of depen- 
dence upon a speculative, fluctuating trade, instead 
of being able tg calculate upon a steady, uniform 
price. It is a fact, demonstrated by experience, in the 
history of monopoly and protective legislation, that all 
plans for giving an unfair support to any particular 
interest, tend to repress activity, and prevent that busi- 
ness from advancing with the impetus, which free trade 
is sure to give. The cotton trade in England, is less 
protected than any other branch of our manufactures, 
yet it has risen, even amid discouragement, to an unex- 
ampled pitch of greatness; while France, with equal 
facilities for obtaining the raw material, has been always 
.attempting to assist her cotton manufacture by protec- 
tive legislation, but instead of improving, has thereby 
brought it into a most unhealthy state: — large bank- 
ruptcies are frequently occurring, her home market is 
glutted, and in foreign markets she cannot compete with 
British goods. Mr. McGregor, in his evidence before a 
committee of the House of Commons, upon import 
duties, attests, that "protection makes an interest satis- 
fied WITH A CIIEAFLR AND xMORE SLOVENLY MODE OF CULTI- 
VATION." Indeed, many of the most useful inventions in 
arts and manufactures, have taken their rise from the 
quickened activity of free trade and close competition. 
Now, if our farmers are behind the enlightenment of 
the age in which they live — if their ^application of ma- 
nures and selection of crops, be rather according to 
some speculative whim, or the custom of their neigh- 
bors; than from a knowledge of the scientific principles 
applicable to farming, is it not to be accounted for by 
-their slumbering under the tree of protection, while they 
ought to have been roused to improvement by free trade? 
My second charge against the .Corn Laws, is, that by- 
confining the range of our supply, they leave us unpro- 
vided against, a season of scarcity arising from deficient 
crops in these islands. In this variable climate, it is 
impossible to calculate with any approach to correct- 
ness, the t .amount.of food which our soil u*ay yield in 
any coming year; but a kind and gracious Providence 
has made ample provision for a regular supply to hi§ 



SO THE CORN LAWS, 

creatures, by spreading around us the mighty ocean, to 
bear upon its bosom to our shores the produce of other 
lands, to interlink nation with nation, and afford facili- 
ties for the equal distribution of the peculiar products of 
each country in those places where the article may be 
required, and where other useful commodities can be 
afforded in exchange. The laws of God are better than 
the laws of men; he has so arranged the movements of 
the changing winds, the falling rains, and the circling 
vegetating sun, that when scarcity exists in one coun- 
try, there is generally abundance in another, and the 
more widely our field of supply is extended, the more 
completely are the chances of famine removed, until, 
with the world for* our market, it becomes absolutely 
impossible that our supply of bread should fail. Alas! 
that the impertinence of human folly should have been 
permitted to interfere with, and disarrange this beautiful 
mechanism by which the God of nature has provided 
unceasing bounties, adapted to the wants of all hra 
children. We have authorized stupid, brainless lords, 
nursed in the lap of luxury, until their intellects have 
vanished in the perfume of spices, to be our legislators, 
and in the empiricism of their landed wisdom, they 
have cut asunder the uniting bonds of nations, isolated 
our position and limited our supply of the &taff of life. 
God has surrounded our islands with the highway of 
ocean, blessed us with numerous ports and harbors, 
breathed forth the gentle gales, or stirreSup the sweep- 
ing winds, to fill ou 1 ' sails, and bear our manufactures 
to every land, that food may be brought home to our 
people, in return for their skill and industry; but, when 
the loaded bark arrives, our ports are closed, legislation 
interferes, to prohibit the import:* ti on of food, and heav- 
en's rich blessings must be sunk or sent away. And 
yet, there are thousands of our famine stricken coun- 
try nen, willing to employ their skill and energy in 
producing manufactures, provided they can have bread 
in exchange, and thousands, too, of the people of other 
lands, ready to receive the products of our skill, and 
repay us with their superabundant corn; but our land 
owner forbids it. True, the cry of suffering humanity 
enters his ears, his eyes are saluted with evidences of 
3* 



UNJUST AND INJURIOUS. HI 

poverty and distress on every hand, some human emo- 
tions arise occasionally and struggle within his bosom; 
but then his debts and mortgages stand in the way, hi j 
horses and dogs; the delica ies of his table, and splendid 
trappings of his rank must all be sustained; and clean- 
ness of teeth may spread throughout our cities, com- 
ial panics may disorganize the very framework of 

Lety; he will not relax his grasp until the loud acclaim 
of an injured people shall demand it in a voice not to 
be misunderstood, and which dar< >e resisted. If 

a free and regular trade in Corn were permitted, our 
English manufactures would be exchanged for it, in 
reasv-ns when it is peculiarly abundant, and in coun- 
tries where it could be obtained at a mutual advantage; 
and by having a continual supply on hand, when seasons 
of scarcity visit us, our laid up stores would be diffused 
throughout the land in such abundance, as to prevent 
any rapid rise in the price of bread, and amply to com- 
pensate the nation for the failure of the home supply. 
Now, under the operation of our present Corn Laws, 
with a sliding scale, which is prohibitory of importation, 
except at famine prices, seasons of scarcity arrive, and 
want is at our very doors, before any provision is made 
to meet the difficulty. Monopolists in all trades, find it 

their interests to leave the markets understocked, and 
thus prices largely to advance. Orders are then 

dispatched in all haste, often so quick that our merchant 
vessels cannot be get ready soon enough to become the 
conveyors of the importations. Large demands for gold 
are made upon the bank of England, perhaps, as in 
years past, to the extent of nine millions of money, and 
thus the country is- brought to the very verge of bank- 
ruptcy. The Corn growers of the continent, not ha ring 
a regular trade with us in Corn, are unprepared to meet 
conveniently our unforeseen demand, and consequently 
charge us much above their average prices, and must be 
paid in gold, because an importation of manufactures, 
can no where be disposed of to advantage, unless there 
be a regular and annual supply to create a dependent 
market. Have not these principles been abundantly 
confirmed by the lamentable state in which this country 
has been during the last two years? The people were 



32 THE CORN LAWS, 

compelled to retrench their comforts, because most of 
their wages were expended in purchasing dear bread, 
and this was attended with a proportionate declension 
of trade and decrease of the revenue of the kingdom. 
While England's gold, which ought to have been diffu- 
sing itself through the busy channels of commerce, was 
withdrawn to supply an extraordinary demand for for- 
eign Corn, and (worst of all) our manufactures, which, 
im a constant trade, would have procured us Corn, were 
.left unsold, and the workmen either thrown entirely 
idle, or compelled to subsist upon half time wages. 
Surely, the history of our proceedings during these 
years, ought to have made those men ashamed of their 
arguments, who were loud in their advocacy of the 
Corn Laws, upon the ground that by encouraging home 
cultivation, they make us independent of foreign sup- 
ply. Have they, then, made us independent of foreign 
Corn? O no! They have made us most dangerously 
dependent, by preventing us from having a supply on 
hand. Have they prevented our gold from going 
abroad? No! They have sent our gold abroad, while 
in a free and regular trade, the fruits of our mechanical 
skill would have procured us Corn, as readily as gold. 
Did they put us into a position that would enable us at 
any time to go to war, because we were independent? 
No! They produced an exhausted treasury, . a falling 
revenue, and a rapid run upon a foreign market for the 
first necessary of existence, accompanied with such 
mercantile and manufacturing distress, as must, if war 
had arisen, been the means of humbling us before all 
Europe. Yet these are some of the splendid advanta- 
ges, with the hope of which, monopolists have been 
deceiving the nation for many years. Let us reply to 
the offers of monopoly, in the language of the bard of 
Mantua, "Timeo Danaos ct dona f creates" The popula- 
tion of these islands is increasing too rapidly to make 
it any longer possible for the nation to be left depend- 
ent upon the limited progress of home agriculture for 
daily bread. The scarcity and want through which we 
have passed, is only a foretaste of what we must prepare 
ourselves to meet with in future, if these laws are suf- 
fered to continue. With a population increasing at the 






UNJUST AND INJURIOUS. 33 

Tate of one thousand souls per day, we must not — we 
can not, afford to trifle any longer with this question. 

My third argument for a repeal of the Corn Laws, is* 
that they are exceedingly injurious to the prosperity of 
-our commerce and manufactures. Nothing can be 
more clear to me, than that the future superiority and 
grandeur of this country must mainly depend upon her 
manufacturing and commercial interests. Agriculture, 
no matter how much improved, or how well conducted, 
is totally incapable of providing employment for the 
repidly increasing millions of our empire; but our manu- 
factures are capable of an indefinite extension, and if 
increased, could employ almost any required amount of 
people. Without, then, any wish, to depreciate the 
importance of agriculture, we must take the liberty of 
asserting that the people of England must either emi- 
grate in large numbers, or prepare themselves to become 
manufacturers upon a much larger scale than hereto- 
fore. The broad acres of this country are already tilled, 
and cannot be beaten out much farther. Attempts may 
be made to cultivate the barren mountains ol Ireland 
and Scotland, but these speculations are net likely to be 
repaid with interest or success. Unto manufacturing 
industry, then, we are compelled to lock for the employ- 
ment of our people, and is it not a cheering anticipation 
to think of a time when, by working up raw material 
into finished fabrics, for the consumption of the world, 
we shall be able to take full advantage of our commer- 
cial position as an island, and pbviate the necessity of 
Poor Laws, either mild or stringent, by having abundant 
employment for all our people? Besides, if there were 
no pressing necessity for doing so, the prospect which 
manufactures hold cut of enlarged profit, ought to lead 
us to prefer them. The mercantile anel manufacturing 
towns of the kingdom, have risen to wealth and import- 
ance with astonishing rapidity, while agricultural dis- 
tricts have been remaining in statu quo, if not absolutely 
declining. At present, the chief obstruction to the ex- 
tension of our manufactures, is the unjust and unequal 
pressure of the Corn Laws. This has operated in two 
ways. 

1st. By diminishing the home demand for manufactu- 



114 THE CORN LAWS, 

red articles. If a people are paying a monopoly prie© 
for bread, it is evident that their ability to purchase oth- 
er articles is thereby lessened; by laying out a large 
proportion of their income upon the baker, they will 
have but little to support the grocer, and thus commerce 
is injured. And if, in addition, they must pay a double 
price for sugar, owing to a second monopoly, then tan- 
ners, shoemakers, tailors, and dress manufacturers of 
all kinds, must be the victims. The poor cannot do 
without bread, but they may contrive to live without 
frequent renewals of clothing; but when they become 
unable to purchase, trade is paralyzed, master manu- 
facturers cannot effect sales, their machinery is stopped, 
their workmen dismissed, and oar Union Houses filled 
with paupers. The only attempt at reply to this argu- 
ment, which I have heard, has been the assertion, that 
wages rise and fall with the price of food. Now, this is 
one of the most impudent and barefaced falsehoods that 
could be put before a nation. The amount of wages, 
like all things else, is regulated by the demand for labor, 
and the plenty or scarcity of hands to be employed; but 
when bread is dear, the laborer must increase his hours, 
in order to meet his increasing outlay; he is compelled, 
perhaps, to send his wife to work, and take his children 
from school, that they may assist in ministering to their 
own support, and thus the labor market becomes glutted, 
by a too great increase of competing hands, and wages 
fall when tiiey ought to rise. In his examination before 
a Parliamentary committee, on import duties, Mr. Walk- 
er attests that the wages 'of workmen at Wolverhampton 
do not rise and fall with the price of food. He says, 
4 The wages of labor depend upon the demand for the goods, 
not upon the price of provisions. We witness now, low 
Wages and a high price of provisions — high prices of bread, 
meat and groceries;" and Air. McGregor likewise reports 
that the real wages of the laborer, (viz: the amount of wages 
as compared with the price of food,) in this country is 
much less than in Saxony. We have all abundant means 
of knowing, that in America, where wheat sells for 30s. 
per quarter, labor is remarkably well pai I, while in Ire- 
land, where wheat is enormously high, the agricultural 
laborers would be glad to find constant employment at 



tftWUgT AND INJURIOUS, M 

mx pence per day. Indeed, it is utterly unnecessary to 
quote authorities, or to appeal to the state of foreign 
countries, for evidence against this falsehood. The 
laboring population of our own country can at once 
decide the question. Laborers of England, you have 
had some years of high prices: have your wages increas- 
ed accordingly, and are you now more happy than in 
previous years of low prices? If you are, then what 
else is wanting to raise you to the summit of human 
happiness, but to have the price of bread made higher 
still? 

•2d. The foreign demand for manufactured articles is 
lessened by the operation of the Corn Laws. The in- 
habitants of the continent formerly devoted their atten- 
tion chiefly to agriculture. For this, their soil and 
climate was well adapted, while Great Britain was before 
all other countries as manufacturers. Her abundance 
of coal and iron, the skill and enterprise of her people, 
combined with the splendid results of mechanical and 
inventive genius, gave her a decided, and what might 
have been a permanent advantage. The continental 
corn growers would willingly have continued to receive 
our finished fabrics, and the fruits of their soil would 
have been to us an ample recompense, This arrange- 
ment would have tended to the mutual advantage of 
both parties, for it is a simple, common sense principle, 
that forms the basis of all division of labor, that every 

NATION SHOULD ADDRESS ITSELF PARTICULARLY TO THAT BUSI- 
NESS, FOR THE CONDUCTING OF WHICH IT HAS THE GREATEST 

facilities. By carrying out this beautiful principle, 
commerce would be largely extended; the dark places 
of the earth would be enlightened and civilized; the 
scattered nations that inhabit our globe would be united 
together in the closest bonds of mutual interest, and 
friendship, and the occurrence of destructive wars would 
be rendered altogether impossible. Instead, however, 
of pursuing this enlightened and advantageous plan, 
we have been fencing ourselves about with protective 
duties, and prohibiting the importation of food. Thi» 
policy has produced an effect which might easily have 
been foreseen: the continental growers, not being able 
to find a market for their corn, withdrew from their agri- 



86 THE CORN LAWS, 

cultural pursuits; and, as they could not obtain our 
manufacture, except by paying in gold, necessity obli- 
ged them to procure machinery, and become manufactu- 
rers themselves. Mr. McGregor, who is Secretary to 
the Board of Trade, and well acquainted with the com- 
mercial affairs of the continent, says, that "the argument 
made use of to him on every occasion, both in Prussia, 
in Saxony, and in the Rhenish States, and particularly 
at the two Congresses held at Munich and Dresden was 
this: 'You compelled us to become manufacturers; we 
have not mines of gold and silver, and you would not 
take what we had to sell you. If you had taken w T hat 
we had to give, we should have continued to produce it, 
because we found a market for it; but as you would not 
take it, necessity compelled our people to look out for 
other occupation, and they were intelligent enough to 
turn their attention extensively to manufactures. The 
German grazier now exchanges his cattle and his beef, 
for fabrics, with the home manufacturer, and the corn 
dealer and the miller provide bread for the manufactu- 
rer, and take his goods and use them in return.' This 
was the common saying in Prussia, where every man is 
intelligent, and where every man thinks, and w T here, a# 
sc*>n as he sees an effect, immediately inquires into the 
cause." We have thus, by our short sighted policy, 
raised up foreign rivals, who are now meeting us in al- 
most every quarter of the world, and attempting to 
undersell us by the advantage which they enjoy in the 
cheapness of their provisions. Machinery is now ex- 
ported from this country, and put in motion in many 
parts of the continent, besides large establishment raised 
in France, Belgium, Switzerland, Germany and the Uni- 
ted States, for manufacturing their own machinery. 
There seems also to be a strong tendency among British 
capitalists, to remove their establishments to those 
countries where provisions are lower than here, and 
where trade is unfettered. It is also said that agents 
are busy throughout the manufacturing towns of the 
north of England, in employing and sending off the most 
skillful of our workmen, to conduct the business of foreign 
establishments. 

People of England' are you not bound to consider 



UNJUST AXD INJURIOUS. 37 

seriously what in a few years might be the effect of 
these things? When our Continental rivals are able to 
produce articles equal in texture, and at a similar price 
to ours, then we must expect to be shut out from their 
home market ; but tins is not the only injury done tou* 
by our protective laws. By their system of free trade 
they have an advantage over us in foreign markets, 
for .they arc willing to dispose of their fabrics and to 
receive in exchange foreign produce, at a low revenue 
duty, while we for the purpose of bolstering up our 
West India proprietors and landed gentry, have enacted 
heavy prohibitory duties upon the very articles that our 
merchants could most readily obtain in exchange for 
their goods. Thus have we been hitherto pursuing a 
system which if continued, must eventually issue in the 
destruction of our manufacturing, and commercial supe- 
riority, — in throwing multitudes of our people out of 
employment, — in sending capital out of the country 
and bringing our national greatness low indeed. There 
is also in this system another element of evil. By our 
exclusive, and protective legislation, we are either refu- 
sing to admit the products of other countries, or laying 
enormous discouraging duties upon its entrance, and 
thus we are stirring up the nations with whom we trade, 
to deal out a similar measure to us, and enact heavy 
duties upon our exportations. Our minister for foreign 
affairs, declares that he has had to discuss the question 
of tariff with most of the foreign states with which we 
have Commercial relations, and they are all in the same 
etory. They invariably give us to understand that when 
we ask them to permit a more liberal admission of our 
manufactured goods into their markets, we ought to set 
them the example by allowing a more liberal ad- 
mission of their produce into our market. Commerce 
they observe is a system of barter, and if we exclude 
from our ports, their corn, their timber, their sugar, their 
coffee, every great article in short, of their produce 
which they could offer us in exchange for our commodi- 
ties, how can we suppose that they can carry on trade 
with us. Dr. Browning reports, that at Berlin in the late 
Congress, offers were made to negotiate mutual modifi- 
cations in the tariff' of Germany and the tariff of Eng- 
4 



38 THE CORN LAWS, 

land, and tfibse offers were accompanied by statements 
that unless there were a mutual modification of tariffs, 
those governments would" fe forced to raifee the duties 
on British manufactures. 

Our relations with the United States are most exten- 
sive and important ; but the American manufacturers 
are loud in their demands for the laying of increased du- 
ties upon our goods, and the Agricultural states are 
likely to assent to the measure, unless we admit their 
corn in exchange for our manufactures. With the Bra- 
zils we trade to the extent of nearly four millions annu- 
ally ; but our present treaty with them will expire next 
year, and they have given us notice that they will no 
longer receive our manufactures, unless we admit Bra- 
zilian produce. It is not at all to be wondered at, that 
they should take this step, seeing that our goods are by 
them admitted at 25 per cent, while upon their sugar 
and coffee we have been laying duties so enormously 
high, as absolutely to exclude them from our market : 
except a small quantity of coffee smuggled to the Cape 
of Good Hope, and imported from thence upon paying 
a protective duty of 100 per cent. From these facts we 
may learn that the time has arrived, when we must de- 
termine whether we are to continue a great commmer- 
cial and manufacturing nation. Our commerce and 
manufactures need no protecting duties, — they ask for 
none at our hands, — they are ready to aid in the remo- 
val of any laws of this kind, which may have been en- 
acted in their favor, — they ask simply for justice, — and 
justice must be done them ; for the future welfare of 
England depends upon it. They ask for freedom and 
they must be disenthralled. They require the landown- 
er to forego the unfair advantages which he has been 
receiving from protective legislation, that by a lower 
price of provisions, and a perfect freedom of trading, 
they may be able to compete with all their foreign ri- 
vals, and extend British influence and British relation- 
ships to earth's utmost bounds. 

And let us now suppose for a moment that these just 
and moderate demands were refused, that the Corn 
Laws were stereotyped and contimied>, what would be 
the consequence ? Nothing less eventually than destruo- 



UNJUST AND INJURIOUS. 31) 

tion to those very interests who now talk as if their ex- 
istence depended upon the continuance of their monop- 
oly. Let ns once lose our manufacturing superiority, 
and the multitudes who are thereby supported being 
thrown out of employment, must again have recourse 1 
to the Agricultural districts, and fall for their support 
upon the poor rates, to the ruin of the farmer, and the 
complete reduction of the rent roll of the country. 

I have thus my countrymen set before you, reasons 
of the most conclusive and urgent nature for the repeal 
of these iniquitous laws ; reasons which I am satisfied 
can not be fairly counterbalanced by any advantages 
which they may be supposed to afford to any party in 
the nation ; but ere I close I am disposed for a moment 
to advert to one or two of the pleas which are put for- 
ward in favor of their continuance. We are frequently 
told that by their repeal, the poorer soils of the king- 
dom would be thrown out of cultivation. Now we an 4 
not to understand from this argument, that there is any 
danger of even the smallest quantity of land in this 
country ever becoming useless. Landlords know too 
well the value of money to allow r their lands to remain 
unoccupied, so long as even 5s. per acre of rent can be 
obtained for them. But if there ,fce soils so .poor that 
they do not repay the expense of tillage for wheat crops, 
it is hard to conceive how the general welfare of the 
country can be promoted by persevering in their appli- 
cation to such a use, seeing that it is attended with a 
dead loss, falling upon the whole nation. Surely it 
were better to devote them to the use for which they 
seem to have been originally intended, that by the more 
extensive pasturage of cattle, the price of meat may 
become £ower, and thus be brought more within the 
reach of the laboring classes of the community. The 
only danger that could be conceived to exist would be 
from allowing our laws wdiich at present prohibit the 
importation of cattle or meat to continue, after the Corn 
Laws were repealed. By thus keeping up ihe price of 
meat, we would be offering a premium to the proprietors 
of land to use even their good soils for pasture ; but let 

ALL THESE PROHIBITORY LAWS BE SWEPT AWAY TOGETHER, 

there canj?e no sound reasons for upholding some of 



40 THB CORN LAWS, 

them while others are removed; and thus the price of 
corn and meat being reduced in an equal ratio, there 
will be no tendency amongst farmers to apply soils to 
pasture, from which corn can be raised with advantage. 
The advocates of monopoly likewise urge in behalf of 
their unjust privileges, that the people of these islands 
are so heavily taxed for purposes of revenue that they 
require the protection of the Corn "Laws, to enable them 
to meet the burdens of the state. Now we shall be dis- 
posed at once to admit the validity of this argument, 
provided the Proprietors of Land are willing to take 
upon themselves the whole taxation of the country, and 
free the rest of the community -from its pressure ; but if 
it be found that the whole people and not the proprietors 
of land only are contributing to the public revenue, then 
the land owners have no solid ground for demanding 
peculiar advantages, while in reality they are bearing 
only a very small share of the public burdens. Or would 
these men really be understood to intimate, that the 
people by paying a high price for bread, are the better 
able to contribute to the public expenditure of the na- 
tion ! I should like to understand the logic by which 
it can be proved that the more we pay to the landown- 
er, we shall have the more remaining to meet the reve- . 
nue of the country ; and yet this self-eiddent absurdity 
is put before us, at a time when its incorrectness has 
been demonstrated by the experience of the whole na- 
tion. The high price of bread during the last few years 
has been accompanied with commercial panics, manu- 
facturing distress and a falling revenue ; thus decisive- 
ly proving that the more a people pay for their provis- 
ions the less they can afford to give to the general taxa- 
tion of the country. Humbly would I recommend the 
landed gentry of these kingdoms to lay aside their pre- 
judice, and anger, and apply themselves with coolness 
and impartiality, to the consideration of this question ; 
and if notwithstanding they must still c be the advocates 
of monopoly; they might thereby be saved at least from 
the disgrace of trumpeting forth in the high places of 
the land, arguments which are self-contradictory and 
manifestly absurd. 

We are accustomed to pride ourselves, up on our en- 



UNJUST AND INJURIOUS. ,41 

Iightcnment as a nation, and it is true that we are en- 
lightened. We boast of our scientific discoveries and 
mechanical skill, and it must be admitted that in both 
these things we have reason for self-gratulation ; but is 
it not deeply to be lamented that our statute book is 
still so largely filled with laws, evidently framed with 
the intention of giving unfair advantages to particular 
interests to the injury of all others. Surely it is time 
for us to cease being divided into classes, and tyranniz- 
ing over each other. If this be the age of the march 
of intellect and the expansion of mind, it ought also to 
be distinguished for the extension of equal rights and 
the progress of just government. Has not. the time ar- 
rived when we ought to be able to say of every princi- 
ple upon which our foreign policy or home government 
is conducted, that it is founded upon justice, — upon jus - 
nice to the poor as well as to the rich, — to the foreigner 
as well as to our neighbor who dwells in the land. Dis- 
graceful is it to us as a nation that the long recognized 
principles of Political Economy, have been so slow in 
finding their way into Britain's house of representation. 
Hid that into our house of Lords they can scarcely be 
said to have yet entered. By the wise provisions of our 
constitution an opportunity is fiu-w afforded for the na- 
tion to utter its voice upas, this question. People of 
England let your demand be freedom for commerce, ex- 
tension to maxi t factures, and justice to the poor. Wealth 
may be u^ed to buy away your rights — tyranny and in- 
fluence may be employed to overawe you, — your just 
demands may for a time be refused; but peaceful and 
determined effort shall yet prevail, lordly pride must 
bow to public requirement, and in your country's revi- 
ved prosperity you shall yet reap a glorious and ample 
reward for any self-denying efforts which you may be 
called upon to expend in the present arduous struggle. 

N. B. The pleaders for free trade were successful. These 
Laws are swept away from the British statute book, and 
our anticipations have been Abundantly realized. 

J. YOUNG 

;Maysville, April 1st, 185?. 

.4* 



CHRISTIAN UNION, 

A Discourse on the Primitive Constitution of Christian 
Churches ; in which is demonstrated, that all true Chris- 
tians might easily unite upon the simple basis of Apostolic 
Faith and order. Preached in the city of Trenton, on 
Lord's day, August 6, 1843, and published by request. 
By John Young. 

Christian Friends, 

The portion of Scripture which we shall this morning 
adopt, as the motto of our observations, you will find in 
John's gospel; 17th chapter, and 20th and 21st verses; 
"Neither pray I for these alone ; but for them also that 
shall believe on me through their word ; that they may 
be one; as thou Father art in me, and I in thee, that 
they also be one in us ; that the world may believe that 
thou hast sent me." 

The accomplishment of this prayer is of vast impor- 
tance on two accounts : 

1. The welfare of all believers was the great object 
which the Son of God held in view amid his sufferings. 
For their sakes he had sanctified himself; devoted him- 
self in life to sorrow and persecution, and in death was 
about to endure death for their deliverance : he could 
not then but pray from the very depth of his soul 
for their interests. 

2. Their unity was necessary, as a means in his hands, 
to convince the world that he was sent of the Father ; 
and until this solemn prayer be accomplished in their 
unity, it is vain to expect the complete removal of pa- 
gan superstition. 

I have taken the liberty of annpuncing through the pub- 
lic papers, that on this occasion I would unfold a principle, 
(new Jit least to this part of the country,] which if car- 
ried into practice, would remove sectarianism ; clear 
away the inventions of men from the church of God; 
and hast en the glorious era on which the hopes of Je- 
;<<*•• «o ardently rested. 



CHRISTIAN UNION, *&G. 43 

The causes which have led to my issuing such a no- 
tice are these : — A short time ago, some slight difficul- 
ties occurred in our church arrangements here, which 
^induced me to resign my pastoral charge. In my let- 
ter of resignation, the following principle was laid down, 
as one of the reasons of my taking that step : 

"Another reason which has had due weight with me 
is, that of your church covenant and confession of faith, 
and the uses to which you apply these documents, I 
cannot approve. 

'•Since ever I became a Baptist, or understood -any- 
thing of what the Scriptures teach upon church govern- 
ment, I have been firmly convinced that the inspired 
record is perfect, and consequently absolutely sufficient 
for the government of Christ's church, without any of 
the inventions of men. No human creed then, or code 
of discipline, or test of communion, or ecclesiastical 
bond by civil law, have I ever used in any church of 
which I was pastor till I reached these shores, and none 
do I ever intend to sanction or employ ; assured as I 
am that they are the offspring of popery, and had no 
existence in the first and most perfect age of the church 
under the apostles." A majority of this church have 
requested me to withdraw my resignation, upon the un- 
derstanding that this principle should be brought into 
practical operation ; but some few have intimated that 
they think the thing rather chimerical, and that to at- 
tempt to conduct church affairs without human laws or 
creeds, would be going out to sea without either chart 
or compass. Bfy intention was quietly to retire from 
this place, without creating any confusion by the dis- 
cussion of this question ; but since grave people are 
shaking their heads at it, and considering it an imprac- 
ticable whim, I think it better, ere I leave, to give my 
reasons, and try whether I can place it on a basis of 
evidence, from whence it can neither be mocked at nor 
shaken. Before I enter upon the discussion of the 
question now before you, permit me thus publicly to 
state; that I do not regard myself as having been un- 
kindly treated by any member of this church or congre- 
gation : there is no private quarrel or personal resent- 
ment involved in this case; indeed A^m +He neople of 



44 CHRISTIAN UNION, &C. 

this place generally, I have received the most unques- 
tioned tokens of kindness during my brief residence 
among them. It is simply a difference of principle, 
and at the existence of this there can be no surprise, 
considering that I have formed my religious principles 
far distant from this country, amid other scenes and as- 
sociations. On this occasion I shall be unsparing in 
my reprobation of those views or practices which I 
deem injurious, but I hope I shall be held far above per- 
sonal resentment; indeed for that I have no cause. 

The confession of faith which is used in this church 
in the reception of members, is that generally termed 
the Philadelphia Baptist Confession. In its 1st article, 
-section 6th, it approves and lays down the very princi- 
ple for which I am contending; but alas! such is the 
inconsistency And weakness of human nature, that is 
the construction of such a book, and the use to which 
it lias been applied, there is a complete departure from 
that most safe and important principle. 

The section is as follows : a The whole counsel of God, 
concerning all things necessary for his own glory, 
man's salvation, faith, and life, is either expressly set 
down or necessarily contained in the holy Scripture, 
unto which nothing ateny time is to be added, whether 
by new revelation of the spirit or traditions of men.'" 
This is an important truth, though clumsily expressed, 
and in nothing is it more important than in its applica- 
tion to the government of the church. The church of 
Christ is a spiritual building, and must be raised by Di- 
vine, not by human wisdom. This w r ill be apparent to 
every one who carefully studies the following reasons.: 

1. Man is a short-sighted erring creature ; his plans 
are frustrated, and his speculations in temporal matters 
are often dashed to pieces, while he is left to mourn over 
the wreck of all his hopes, refusing to be comforted. 
But in nothing is he more ignorant and erring than in 
religious affairs. The fall has not injured his intellectu- 
al powers, so much as it has his moral and religious 
character. Thus it happens that the light of nature 
and the results of human reason cannot be depended 
on in religious matters. When we reflect that the 




CHRISTIAN UNION, fit 45 

troiTd's salvation depends, uiujer God, upon the right-ac- 
tion and prosperity of christian institutions, we cannot 
suppose that the all-wise Jehovah would commit thegov^ 
efrnment and guidance erf such instrtutioi s, I ber- 

rations of human reason, and the darkness of man'* 
fallen depravity ; as well are we fitted For guiding the 
complicated operations of all the spheres of the uni- 
verse, as for conducting the Church of God to her final 
triumphs by our plans of short-sighted expediency. 

2. When God formed the Jewish people into a reli- 

ty, lie appointed and arranged, himself, nil 
liii ir institutions, officers, laws and plans of operation. 
The Mosaic economy was only a frail and fleeting em- 
blem of the good things to come, yet God would net 
suffer the wisdom of Moses to interfere, hut charged 
him saying, WL See thou make all things according to the 
pattern showed thee in the mount." So far as they act 
according to his perfect instruction, he prospc rs them ; 
but when they depart from Ids statutes and judgments, 
they are consumed before his anger. Much more, then, 
in a dispensation of a more spiritual nature, should we 
expect a perfect pattern, or a clear description of all 
the operations which his people are called upon to en- 
re in, for the promotion of his glory. 

3. When the Lord Jesus Christ appeared on earth,. 
primitive simplicity of Mosaic economy had been mar- 
red aud defaced by the traditions and inventions of 
men. With what degree of favor the Son of God look- 

iipon human customs and rules in his Father's king- 
dom, we can le om bis own words; in the 15th 
chapter of Mattlww, 3d verse : "But he answered, why 
do ye also transgress the eommandment of God by 
your traditions?*' And when he heard that they were 
offended at his rebuke, he added, in the loth verse, 
'^ery plant which my heavenly Father hath not plant- 
mi shall be rooted up. Let them alone, they be blind 
leaders of the blind ; and if the blind lead the blind, 
both shall fall into the ditch." This is all I wish to ac- 
complish under the christian law ; let everything God 
has appointed remain, let every other plant be pulled 
up, and blind as we all are, let us follow r teachably-tfr# 
guidance of the inspired oracles, 



46 CHRISTIAN UNION, &C. 

4. When Jesus had triumphed over gin and death, 
he ascended up far above all heavens, that he might 
fill all things — was received in the world of glory as a 
triumphant conqueror — crowned Lord of all — the key 
of the house of David was laid upon his shoulders ; and 
he wa 3 from henceforth constituted, before admiring 
angels, the head over all things, for his body the 
church — the King in Zion, from whom should proceed 
forth the lav/ among all nations. The effects of this 
law are described in that glorious developement of 
Christ's exaltation, given in the 4th chapter of Ephcsi- 
ans y as bringing all into the unity of the faith, and into 
the measure of the statute of the fulness of Christ, 
that we henceforth be no more children tossed to arid 
fro, and carried about by every wind of doctrine, by the 
slight of men and cunning craftiness, whereby they 
lie in wait to deceive, but grow up into him, who is the 
head, compacted together as a perfect body. 

Now if Christ is king, it follows necessarily that all 
the laws for the government of his kingdom must pro- 
ceed from him, or have his approbation ; that all the 
offices must be by him instituted, and that all the ordi- 
nances must be traced to his authority. To make pro- 
vision in this way for the government of his house, 
Jesus is recorded, in the 1 9th chapter of Matthew, && 
having appointed his apostles to a judging and regu- 
Jating work in his kingdom, in these words : 

" Ye which have followed me i& the regeneration, (or re- 
formation} when the Son of man shall sit on the throne 
of his glory, ye also shall sit upon twelve thrones, judg- 
ing the twelve tribes of Israel." 

By the day of penteeost, Jesus had ascended and 
been received on the throne of his glory ; whence the 
spirit came down to justify him on earth, and proclaim 
him, by the mouth of Peter, both Lord and Christ. From 
that moment his apostles were instituted judges in his 
church, and filled with the spirit of Divine wisdom, that 
they might regulate all things according to the will of 
their master. He had also appointed Peter to a pecu- 
liar^duty — of first opening his kingdom, and laying 
down the principles which were to regulate its commu- 
nion. This transaction is recorded in the lGtji chapter 



CHRISTIAN UNION, &C. 47 

of Matthew, 16th verse. Peter, on that occasion, was 
the first to make that all-important christian confession, 
"Thou art the Christ the son of the living God." His 
Lord informs him that upon the basis of that confession 
lie will build his church, and make it indestructible ; and 
further adds, "and I will give unto thee (Peter) the keys 
of the kingdom of heaven, and whatsoever thou shall 
bind on earth shall be bound in heaven, and whatsoever 
thou shalt loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven." 
This power of the keys has been claimed by many of 
Peter's supposed successors. The pope informs us that 
the keys were left as a legacy to him, to descend with- 
out wear or tear along the line of popes for ever. Most 
protestant denominations have asserted their right to 
them, with perhaps about equal degrees of plausibility. 
Borrowing, as they do, not a little of Rome's errors, it 
was natural that they should claim the keys also ; but 
I have been exceedingly amused to find that even your 
confession of faith puts in its claim, asserting that the 
keys belong to every particular church, to open and 
shut itself by. Of course, then, this same church of 
ours has a clear title to Peter's keys. It is really cruel 
to attempt to take away from them such sacred proper- 
ty; but nevertheless I must do it; and would therefore 
remark, that Christ gave the keys to Peter ; yes, to Peter, 
and neither to the pope, as his successor, nor to any 
particular nor unp articular church under heaven. Peter 
only could use the keys aright, being under guidance of 
inspiration ; and according as he opened the door, 
should the door stand to the day cf judgment. The 
key is not needed any longer ; Peter perhaps took it 
with him to heaven : but this is certain, that the au- 
thority in this matter is not with us ; according as Peter 
left the door of admission or non-admission, so should it 
be, we have only to go in thereat. From the authority 
of Peter in this matter there is no appeal, for Jesus de- 
clares that he will bind or approve in heaven, what Pe- 
ter does on earth. This was sate, as Peter had the spir- 
it, and was not suffered to begin the work until the spir- 
it came down ; but for us to possess and use the key 
according to our caprices, would be dangerous in the 
extreme, aad consequently Christ could never say, that 



48 CHRISTIAN UNION, &C. 

he would approve all our bindings and loosings in his 
heavenly kingdom. Having thus ascertained that unto 
Peter alone was given this authority, in which he could 
not have any successor, and in' which no successor was 
ever required, he now becomes to us the proper an- 
nouncer and expounder of the terms of christian com- 
munion. 

Let us then ascertain how he used the key, that we 
may keep the door as he left it. 

The gospel kingdom or christian church was set up 
and regulated on the day of pentecost. Some imagine 
that it commenced earlier; this could not be, as the 
works were not finished— the veil of the temple was 
not rent — the earthly things were not shaken, until the 
moment of Christ's dying upon the cross. Then the 
types and shadows of the former dispensation were 
fulfilled. Consequently before this, the language of both 
John and and the disciples of Jesus was, "The kingdom 
of heaven is at hand." After his death, he informs 
them, when they inquire of Mm concerning the restora- 
tion of the kingdom, that they will receive power from 
on high in a short time ; and commands them to tarry 
at Jerusalem, and not to attempt to lay a single stone 
of the spiritual building, in their own wisdom, but wait 
for the promise of the Father. 

When the Spirit descends with the shaking force of 
a tempest, it gathers together a? great multitude of the 
Jews, not only in Jerusalem, but those arrived from Ju- 
dea, and all the surrounding region; that unto that na- 
tion might first be opened the gospel kingdom. Beau- 
tiful is it to trace the wise, though sometimes minute ar- 
rangements of Providence. Who stands forth on this 
occasion to open up the great truths of the gospel? 
Lo! even Peter, who had been designated to the work 
by the giving of the key. Again, God intends to re- 
ceive, not only Jews but gentiles, under the new dispen- 
sation. Cornelius, a gentile, is praying ; God desires 
to open to him the glorious truths of gospel salvation, 
and introduce him, together with all believing gentiles, 
into his church ; who is the apostle selected to this? 
None else but Peter; again must Peter open the door ; 
but now to gentiles, a people whom he hated and re- 



CHRISTIAN UNION, &C. 49 

garded as unclean — a sheet full of unclean beasts is let 
down from heaven, and by that his bigotry is removed, 
and he is taught how to use the key. All then is plain 
and simple to us ; we have only to ascertain the funda- 
mental truths which the apostle laid down on those oc- 
casions, as the basis of their faith; and the ordinance 
by which he introduced them, and our work is done. 
Here permit me to say, that when some of you suppos- 
ed that by casting away human creeds and renouncing 
inventions of men, we would be putting out to sea 
without any guide, you were only displaying your own 
ignorance of the gospel kingdom. This ignorance is 
the more inexcusable, as you have been twenty or thir- 
ty years in the knowledge and practice of ecclesiastical 
matters. Twenty years heaping up ecclesiastical trash, 
yet never having imbibed the simplest rudiments of 
church building. This almost equals those ever learn- 
ing, yet never able to come to the knowledge of the 
truth. I had no idea of putting out to sea without a 
guide. I do not know of any society that ever proposed 
to constitute itself without some common principles ; 
and sure I am if any such foolish project ever was set 
on foot, it must, like a rope of sand, speedily have fallen 
into dissolution. 

I only propose not to build upon human creeds, but 
upon a divine basis. The church of God is not a hu- 
man structure, but a spiritual building raised by God : 
its foundation then must be the holy mountain, the es- 
sential truths of Christianity, which are developed as 
the bond of faith of the original apostolical churches. 
When Peter arises on the day of pentecost to unfold to 
the assembly the principles of the gospel of Christ, af- 
ter making some introductory remarks to open up to 
them the meaning of the strange sight which their eyes 
beheld, he calls the attention of the w 7 hole assembled 
Jew T s to his exposition of christian. doctrine, by saying, 
in the 22d verse, "Ye men of Israel hear these words. ' 
He then proceeds on to the close of the 30th verse, open- 
ing the christian covenant. Again in the house of Cor- 
nelius, Acts, 10th chapter, from the 36th to the 44th 
verse, he lays down for their belief the same great fun- 
damental facts. The grammatical construction of the 
5 



50 CHRISTIAN UNION, &C, 

words are in the two cases slightly different, but a 
glance at the passages will satisfy any inquirer that the 
truths are the same. These truths I shall lay before 
you, without detaining you mentioning the reasoning 
by which the Apostle pauses to prove some of his propo- 
sitions. Comparing the two passages, we shall use the 
same words as the apostle, but separate the arguments, 
and number them as distinct propositions. 

1. God sent his word to the children of Israel. 

2. God anointed Jesus of Nazareth, who went about 
doing good, and was manifested to the Jews by the 
miracles which he wrought. 

3. He was, by the wicked hands of the Jews, crucifi- 
ed and slain. 

4. God raised him up the third day, and showed him 
openly. 

5. The apostles were the chosen witnesses of these 
great events. 

6. He is by the right hand of God, exalted as Lord 
and Christ, and ordained to be the Judge of the quick 
and dead. 

7. All the prophets give witness to him, that through 
his name is remission of sins. 

8. This remission is to all who believe him and obey 
him. 

Such are the primitive ^principles of the christian re- 
ligion, differing in the two passages only in this, that 
among the Jews he produces more proofs of his position 
from their own writings. Among the gentiles he start? 
with one proposition earlier, as a basis, to viz : that 
God had given a revelation or prophetic announcement 
of the Messiah previously to the Jews, and to them he 
makes more clear the import of Jesus being Lord and 
Christ, viz : that there is remission of sin, through him, 
to all believers. The solemn belief of these truths 
then, together with repentance and baptism, is the door 
of admission which Peter opened into the first christian 
churches. 

And simple as these truths seem, they do form in re- 
ality the very cream and essence, sum and substance, 
of the New Testament. The four gospels unfold the 
life, miracles, death and resurrection of Jesus of Naza- 



CHRISTIAN UNION, &C. 51 

rcth ; tlic book of Acts layg open his glorification, and 
the witness of his apostles for his name ; the Epistles 
proclaim the terms of the remission of sins; and justi- 
fication, through faith in him, and the Revelation of John 
ires us amid the awful scenes of a coming judgment 
ye theorizing theologians, who cry out continually of 
the necessity vi % transmuting the divine oracles into 
your human creeds, oi' melting* God's word in the cruci- 
ble of human reason, and forming it anew into system- 
atic order ; where .have you been slumbering, that you 
never learned that God had condensed his plan of re- 
demption into a few sentences, and hung it all upon a 

simple facts? These facts are presented to us by 
Peter, in an order as scientific as the propositions of 
Euclid, each depending upon the foregoing cues, and 
all combined together to form that glorious scheme of 
mercy, by which God saves fallen man. 

The grand object of Peter and all the apostles in 
ir preaching was to convince men of the Messiaship 
of Jesus — without belief cf this truth no man could be- 
come a christian. When this truth was intelligently 
and firmly lodged in human belief, it drew all the law* 
and authority of Christ before it. 

Peter, although an humble fisherman, is yet so far 
elevated and instructed by the Spirit, that he proven 
himself to be both a logician and an orator. He points 
out the miracles of Christ as a proof of his Divine 

ion. These they could not deny. The facts were 
public property — and no just account could be given 
of them except that they were signs of his Messiaship. 

brings the cruelty of the Jews into judgment before 
them, and well might they shrink with horror from the 

I they had done. The blood of God's own Son was* 
on their skirts. He unites the other apostles, and the 
one hundred and twenty brethren with himself, in sol- 
emn attestation that he rose from the dead, and was 
peen by them, and the languages — the tongues, and 
the storm, all attested the truth of their report. He 
shows that, David anticipated this strange catastrophe 
by foretelling his death and resurrection — and thus 
borne aloft by the power of truth and ancient prophe- 
cy, he arrives nt his final conclusion: That God had 



52 CHRISTIAN UNION, &C. 

made this Jesus of Nazareth both Lord and Christ. 
This then is the very truth that, Peter had before con- 
fessed — and upon which his Lord had promised to build 
his church. He is now laying the foundation of the 
first church of Christ, and he departs not one iota from 
the instruction of his Lord. 

Paul, too, was a wise master-builder of the churcji, 
and learned not his gospel from men, and he also de- 
clares, That other foundation can no man lay than 
that is laid, which is Jesus Christ. 

Our translators, by losing sight of the article before 
Christos, in the Greek, have spoiled the sense, and 
made us think that the church is built upon a person, 
while the whole New Testament conspires to shew that 
it is built upon a truth — a great truth, lasting as the 
heavens, viz : that Jesus is the Christ. The same truth 
for which Paul was pleading when we are informed in 
the Acts that he confounded the Jews, promising that 
Jesus is the very Christ. This very in the Greek is sim- 
ply the same article (the) but here made too emphatic 
by the translators. This also is the grand truth, in 
proof of which the gospels were written, for John says 
that, these things, (viz : his gospel), are written , that ye 
might believe that Jesus is the Christ, and that believing 
ye might have life through his name. 

We are also said to be built upon the foundation of 
the Apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ being the chief 
Corner Stone. Here, then, in precise accordance with 
Peter, the apostles and prophets are uniting their testi- 
mony to prove the exaltation of Jesus as universal 
Lord. This truth the Ethiopian Eunuch confessed, and 
in the faith of it was unhesitatingly baptised by Philip, 
and considered bound thereby to discharge all the du- 
ties of a disciple of Jesus. 

If these things be borne in mind, it will serve to make 
clear some passages of Scripture, which on any other 
principle are perfectly inexplicable. In 1 Cor. 12th 
chap. 13th verse, Paul says, that no man can say that 
Je^us Christ is the Lord but by the Holy Ghost. Cer- 
taily any man can call Christ the Lord, and yet be des- 
titute of the Holy Ghost ; but he means that no man 
can make a christian confession, with a full under- 



CHRISTIAN UNION. &.('. 53 

standing of these essential truths, and a firm faith in 
thrni. but by the mighty power of Clod. Thus this sen*- 
tence agrees beautifully with the 10th chapter of R<>- 
mans, 9th \ That if thou shalt confess with thy 

month the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thy heart 
that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be 

ed ; for with the heart man believeth unto righteous- 
ness, and with the mouth confession is made unto sal- 
vation.'' In a like way is the phrase, confession of 
Christ, frequently employed by John, in his epistles. 
thu . 4th chapter, 3d verse, "Hereby know ye the 

spirit of Clod; every spirit that confesseth that Jesus 
Christ is come in the flesh is of God ;" 15th verse, 
*' Whosoever shall confess that Jesus Christ is the Son 
of God, God dwelleth in him ;" 5th chapter and 1st 
verse, "Whosoever believeth that Jesus is the Christ. 
is born of God." These great truths, developed b} 
Peter, were often expressed in set phrase by, Jesus is 
the Christ. Whosoever then believed them in the heart. 
confessed them with the mouth, and obeyed according- 
ly, was a converted person, and received as a member 
into the primitive churches. I defy mortal man to show 
that a belief of any other theoretic truths, no matter of 
what importance, was ever made essentially necessary 
to admittance into the kingdom of the Lord Jesus. By 
what authority, then, have Ave departed from the law 
of his house, as expounded by his apostles, and cntan- 

\ a christian profession with hundreds of other vain 
and absurd requirements. Beside this beautifully sim- 
ple exposition of Christianity given by Peter, we feel 
very strongly tempted to place a human confession of 
faith, and shall select for this purpose the Philadelphia 
Confession. The Philadelphia confession has thirty- 
four chapters, in about one hundred and sixty-two sec- 
tions, and containing at least five or six hundred distinct 
propositions. This is difference with a vengeance, but 
the preponderance of excellence must no doubt be in 
favor of the human confession, as it so enormously 
larger than Peter's, and infinitely more mysterious. If 
the object be to puzzle a young convert, the Philadel- 
phia confession answers much the better purpose, as it 
will be almost impossible for him to understand it all ; 
5* 



54 CHRISTIAN UNION, &C. 

or if it be desirable to promote hypocrisy, by inducing 
him to assent to what he never studied, this also will be 
often found to be the effect produced. 

Every church which makes use of a human confes- 
sion of faith, should reflect that in such a use this con- 
fession becomes as needful to her as the bible itself. 
When the church is receiving accessions, the confession 
is wanted; when she is forming new churches, by send- 
out branches, she needs a new edition printed of a con- 
fession; when she sends her missionaries to form church- 
es in heathen lands, his bark must be laden with the 
confession, — he cannot form a church, he cannot intro- 
duce a member, without it. On the principles I am 
combating, the confession of faith is as necessary to be 
circulated as the bible. God has made his bible neces- 
sary ; he has given to his church the living oracles, the 
word of testimony ; he has appointed the preacher, 
(how shall they hear without a preacher ?) but to con- 
struct and build confessions he has not commanded ; 
yet if the church still must use them, verily they must 
be formed, and they must be spread far and wide to the 
ends of the earth. God's holy book is supposed not to 
answer the purpose ; by no means, then, should the 
key of the confession be left behind, lest the kingdom 
of heaven should remain shut upon both saint and sin- 
ner. Query, if a copy of God's word should chance to 
fall among the people in some remote district of China, 
where there was no Philadelphia confession, and if the 
people, believing the truths of God's book, should meet 
together as a church of Jesus, and attend to his ordi- 
nances, would that simple church, not learned in human 
creeds, be a regular Baptist church, and could its mem- 
bers hold communion with the Baptist church of Tren- 
ton and Lamberton ? 

There has been put into my hands another confes- 
sion, published in Burlington, and used, I presume, as 
the confession of the Baptist church in that place. It 
is better, and more suitable a thousand fold than the 
Philadelphia one, as it is short, and comparatively sim- 
ple, containing only nine sections, instead of 162. I do 
not know that 1 would have much objection to sign it, 
and send it to any friend, as a mere exposition of my 






• 



CHRISTIAN UNION, &C. i:>5 

religious opinions ; but I could not, I dare not, use such 
a book as a test of membership in a church of Jesus 
Christ. I might believe it, but I have no authority to 
hang it as a yoke upon the necks of other disciples ; it 
pledges the members to the doctrine of the saints' ne- 
cessary perseverance, that perhaps I might believe my- 
self, but there are many true christians in the world 
who believe it not; and how dare I keep out from 
Christ's ordinances his blood-bought people, because 
forsooth thej T arc unable to embrace a metaphysical 
dogma of a human creed. 

A position was laid down, a short time ago, which 
seems to me to have a close bearing upon this subject, 
and thus to demand a passing notice. An aged dea- 
con, I think it was, assured us that the faith and order 
of this church was established a great many years ago, 
when the church was constituted and embodied in the 
covenant; and that the people who depart in any way 
from that faith and order, though they should be almost 
the whole members, were no longer the church ; and 
that those who remain attached to this human creed, 
though only six persons, will remain "the church." I 
regret that our brother laid down that position ; he will 
speedily regret it himself. He proves that those who 
depart from the original constitution of this church are 
no longer the church : by that will I prove that this 
church, having cast off and disused entirely the articles 
of faith on which Christianity w r as originally based by 
Peter, can no longer be a church of Christ; it may be 
our church or your church, but, if that principle be true, it 
cannot be an apostolic church. Let me try the proof. 

1 . Peter required belief in eight or nine great funda- 
mental truths, you require five or six hundred, great and 
small. 

2. I will suppose the three thousand who were bap- 
lized on that occasion in Jerusalem alone, all who were 
baptized in the house of Cornelius the eunuch, Lydia, and 
the jailers household, all presented themselves, not to 
Peter, but marshalled in array, good five hundred per- 
sons, before the Baptist church of Trenton and Lam- 
berton. How shall they be admitted? Peter's key 
could admit them by their reception of Christ crucified 
and repentance. Aotsoyou: to you they must relate 



56 CHRISTIAN UNION, &C. 

when they felt very bad, and when and how they got 
better. Next forth comes the Philadelphia confession, 
that they know not, they never saw it; their baptism 
must then be postponed, at least for three months, till 
they have time to study it, less time could not enable 
them to get well acquainted with all its intricacies. 
Then you speak to them of the temperance pledge, arid 
ask them if they agree to it : with that they seem to be 
confounded, never having heard Peter mention it, you 
consequently furnish them with a bundle of temperance 
tracts to prepare them for taking the pledge. Imagine 
them returning to Peter, bearing the Philadelphia creed 
and the temperance tracts, rathe:- disappointed. They 
ask that aged saint to look about him for his key, as- 
suring him that the church at Trenton have found hie 
key, and have therewith locked the door. No ! exclaims 
Peter, my key I have, theirs is forged. 

Christian brethren of this church, by your constitu- 
tion you would be compelled to reject the persons whom 
Peter admitted, and indeed, the members of the church 
at Antioch received by Paul ; in fine you must reject all 
the members of all the apostolic churches, till they 
would study your creeds, and assent to them. What 
further proof need I that you have departed from the 
original constitution of christian churches, and cannot 
be an apostolic church. 

I have thus been using against you the argumentum 
ad homincm, condemning you by your own principles, 
But, thank heaven, our great King and Head judges not 
as you judge ; his mercy is greater than yours, he 
knows the inclination of the human mind to err, and 
makes the allowances accordingly ; though from the 
christian constitution laid down by the wisdom of his 
spirit you have departed, yet I doubt not he owns and 
blesses your ordinances, and breathes upon you his 
heavenly spirit. Pride not yourselves then upon the 
fact, that by your covenant you can unchurch the ma- 
jority of the people who worship God here, for upon the 
same principle by which you can do that, can I pledge 
myself to stand before any judge or court, or jury of 
intelligent men, and prove to their perfect satisfaction 
that you are not an apostolic church of Jesus Christ. It 



CHRISTIAN UNION, &C. 57 

is now time to inform you, that on the day of pentecost 
there is not only the church's faith laid down, but the 
most important points of apostolic order in the church 
at Jerusalem are mentioned, and as this church was 
held as a model for all the other churches in Judea, its 
order should remain as our example unto the end of 
the world. Peter demanded not only faith but repent- 
ance. By this, we presume, he meant sorrow for sin, 
and the determination to reform or change their con- 
duct. This .then cannot be dispensed with, unto the 
end of time, a church should not admit members, with- 
out being satisfied of their sorrow for past conduct, and 
their sincere determination to live anew. Next Peter 
commands them to be baptized. This we would call 
the first article of church order. 

1. It is said that they that gladly received his word 
were baptized ; — they must be believers then, not in- 
fants, when they gladly assented to, or received his doc- 
trine. By their being baptized, we hold he means their 
being immersed. See Donegan's lexicon, word baptizo, 
to immerse, submerge, saturate ; hence to drench with 
wine, metonomy, to confound totally, to dip in a vessel 
and draw it out. This beautiful ordinance, being thus 
laid down as the first point of church order, should be 
so held and used in all time till the great Master comes 
again. 

2. They are said to have continued steadfastly in the 
Apostle's doctrine. Light may be thrown upon this 
statement, by recollecting that when Jesus gave the 
commission to his disciples to preach the gospel, and 
to baptize those who believed it, he then added the 
charge, that they should teach the baptized all things, 
whatsoever he had commanded them. In the reception, 
then, of this church teaching, and in inquiring the 
whole will of him whom they had taken to be their 
king, did the members of this most ancient church con- 
tinue. 

3. They are ^-aid to have continued in fellowship. 
This term is frequently used for that affection and broth- 
erly love, which the apostolic christians cherished for 
each other, and which was especially manifested in 



58 CHRISTIAN UNION, &C. 

their weekly assemblies, by their laying up a store to 
supply the wants of all who needed. 

4. They continued in breaking bread. We should 
not only continue to use this ordinance occasionally, 
but we should make diligent search Loo often and when 
they attended to it, and. follow their steps accordingly. 
With this view, we can scarcely ponder too much upon 
the 20th chapter of Acts, and 9th verse, "And upon the 
first day of the week, when the disciples came together 
to break bread, Paul preached unto them. 5 ' This is 
clear, and without room for doubt; but it ought to be 
freely acknowledged, that, in the constituted order of 
the Jerusalem church, the frequency is not laid down 
as an essential point. 

5. They continued in prayers ; and without solemn 
and united prayer at stated times for God's blessing, no 
church on earth can prosper ; for it is God that sendeth 
prosperity. 

6. At the 47th verse, they are said to have spent 
time in praising God. Thus the services of the Lord's 
house are recorded for our instruction and example. 
In the name of wonder, how then can a christian, with 
a bible in his hand, be out at sea, or in any way puz- 
zled for want of a human creed, when the Great Head 
of the Church, in building up the first christian society 
that ever was in the world, laid down recorded plainly, 
both the fundamental articles of faith and the arrange- 
ment of the church's services? Can all the clergy in 
the world, with all their gowns and bands, form a bet- 
ter constitution ? It is more simple, more practicable, 
and commends itself more to the common sense of 
mankind, than all the creeds or church forms which 
have been ever forged or used during these eighteen 
centuries. The works of the Lord are wonderful — 
man's transitory and imperfect, O seek them out all 
ye his saints, and thereby glorify his name. I might 
add, while passing, that while all things were then held 
in common by the Jerusalem church, this was peculiar 
to their infantile and persecuted state, and laid aside 
when no longer necessary. This is certain from the 
fact, that in the other churches of Judex* and the gen* 

> the thing did not exist, as it was n;t with them 



CHRISTIAN UNION, &C. 5fl 

necessary. In learning these beautiful lessons of primi- 
tive Christianity we should take due care to separate 
try from the incidental, lest we be led away 
into foolish attempts at unnecessary imitation. 

I hare now produced the original constitution of the 
earliest christian churches in the world, for your guid- 
ance, and would leave this part of my subject with re- 
marking, that God has never established a church with- 
out developing to its members its principles and its* 
laws himself He did so when he constituted the fami- 
ly of Abraham a church; he gave them his promises, 
and commanded their acts of obedience. They did so 
when he organized the Jewish nation at Horeb ; see 
Deuteronomy^ 6th chapter, 16th verse, "Ye shall dilgent- 
ly keep the commandments of the Lord your God, and 
his testimonies, and his statutes, which he hath com- 
manded thee ;" also the formation of them into a 
church state, was by their solemn reception of God's 
constitution. Hear Deuteronomy, 26th chapter, 7th 
verse, "Thou hast vouched this day the Lord to be thy 
God, and to walk in his ways, and to keep his statutes, 
and his commandments, and his judgments, and to 
hearken unto his voice." That constitution was pro- 
mulgated from the top of Sinai, amid the thunder, this 
one from mount Zion. amid the tempest and flame of 
his spirit's descending ; that was a constitution of mere 
law to be obeyed, this one a constitution of principles 
to be believed; therefore God says, in Jeremiah, 31st 
chapter, 32d and 33d verses, that they broke his former 
covenant, and he therefore did not bless them; but that 
afterwards he will make a new covenant with them, 
when he will put his law in their inward parts, and 
write it in their hearts, and he will be their God, and 
they shall be his people. This he did on pentccost ! he 
wrote it in their hearts by producing faith in its princi- 
ples : faith stirred their souls to gratitude, and gratitude 
secured their holy obedience. Oh, may the simple gos- 
pel of Christ, free from the traditions of men, be writ- 
ten in all our hearts by faith, and produce the obedi- 
ence of the life. I have now produced an inspired con- 
stitution, and might close with this — none can compete 
with it; but I feel inclined not to cease my labor till I 



60 CHRISTIAN UNION, &.C. 

shall have fully and forever demolished the earved-work 
of man in the temple of the Lord. I then arraign all 
human creeds upon sundry grave and serious charges, 
which, if proved, must produce their unqualified con- 
demnation. 

1. They break up the church of God into sects and 
parties, and thus frustrate the solemn prayer of Jesus 
for his people's unity. 

The passage which we selected as our text, is a beau- 
tiful and afFecting prayer of Jesus, offered at a crisis 
the most awful of his eventful history. The gloom of 
Gethsemane's garden and the dark shadows of the cru- 
cifixion hour were already gathering around him; he 
seems to clasp the feeble band of his disciples more 
closely, and pray for them with the agony of a soul 
soon to be bereaved ; from them he extends his view to 
believers in all coming time, and, in view of their diffi- 
culties and struggles with the world, he prays that they 
may be one, that the world may be convinced by their 
unity. Oh ! who could look upon this scene, and listen 
to this solemn prayer, and then take any step calculated 
to frustrate this holy object? Who dares step forward 
and say this unity shall not be ? Yet every creed- 
maker upon earth is pursuing the course best calcu- 
lated to frustrate this object, though in his ignorance 
he may not design to do so. Every man who adds 
to the essential articles of the christian faith, and re- 
fuses to hold communion with those who may not be 
able to come up to all these additions, is building up a 
human and ungodly wall of separation between Christ's 
disciples. What is it that forms the lines of distinc- 
tion between the different protestant sects in the w T orld ? 
Certainly nothing else than human creeds and inven- 
tions of man. Take away these, and they must come 
together, for they are one. It is remarkable what a 
vast amount of agreement there is, among at least all 
evangelical denominations of christians, upon every 
question which is any way essentially connected with 
the salvation of the soul ; yet to a distant spectator 
these sects seem continually warring with each other, 
and they are very frequently launching forth mutual 
anathemas ; but these controversies are almost always 



CHRISTIAN UNION, &C. 61 

either upon speculative points of no practical moment, 
or about their own human outworks, their forms, their 
ceremonies, their creeds, not one of which is at all de- 
manded of them by their Lord in his word. Far be it 
from me to attempt to teach my fellow disciples to dis- 
regard or break one of the least of his commandments ; 
but I can fully trust him, that the things which he has 
laid down as a basis of union and church membership, 
are sufficient for that purpose, and should in no wise be 
compromised or cast aside : while the thing* which he 
has not made thus a part of the foundation, important 
as they may be in themselves, will be best promoted, 
not by church discipline, but by diligent study and 
faithful teaching of the inspired volume. 

This broad platform of apostolic requirement is suffi- 
cient to unite all real christians, and by nothing else 
shall they ever be united. A union by compromise, is 
frequently talked of at our public meetings ; that is, for 
all parties to lay into the background some of their re- 
al religious principles. This would be disastrous and 
delusive in the extreme ; the moment that different por- 
tions of the family of heaven sacrifice to each other 
their religious opinions, that moment dishonors and 
fearfully endangers the very existence of the religion 
of Jesus ; and such a plan cannot be entertained at all 
by any christian^ of firm principle. Is there any way 
of bringing all denominations to receive the forms of 
some one of their number ? Do you think that all 
christians will ever be brought to unity upon the epis- 
copal foundation of the thirty-nine articles and the lit- 
urgy ? I do not think so ! Will all christians ever re- 
ceive the Westminster creed and the Presbyterian 
church courts ? It cannot be ! Shall we all become 
one great family on the holy bond of John Wesley's 
works ? I fear that, also, dare not be hoped for ! But 
the Baptists ! ay, the Baptists yet remain ! Well, do our 
aged brethren expect to see the day when the church 
of God shall spread herself from shore to shore, all re- 
ceiving with solemn reverence the Philadelphia confes- 
sion, and falling into the precise order of the Trenton 
and Lamberton church? Vain delusive dreams, away ! 
Never will the family of God become one on earth, till 
6 



63 

they cast away their own devices, and seek with child- 
like simplicity for the will of their Father, at the very 
fountain-head of knowledge. It is certain as the de- 
crees uf heaven, that just as w T e behold the millenial 
morning dawn, these artificial things of man's devisiDg 
shall pass away like the mists of morning before the 
rising sun. 

These are the things which still hold the consciences 
of men in bondage to vain delusive ceremonies of will- 
worship. 

Who, then, shall take the lead in freeing themselves 
from this cumbersome trumpery ? Certainly we cannot 
expect that it will be any of those denominations, who, 
in casting off their creeds, would be compelled thereby 
to renounce ceremonies long established and entwined 
about their religious affections. No, it must be Bap- 
tists who will begin this work ; they have nothing to 
lose in losing creeds. They are conscious that they 
use not an ordinance which is not well authenticated 
and warranted by the broad seal of heaven. Provi- 
dence calls upon them to do this thing ; for them it is 
easy, and needs little change. Shall Baptists be forev- 
er content to occupy the poor and despicable position 
of imitating the clamorous noisy ranting of the sects 
around them, of falling into their wake, and adopting 
all the foolish and short-sighted exciting and unscrip- 
tural machinery which is now in exercise, and which, 
if continued and increased, would eventually destroy 
Christianity, rather than build it up ? Have they not the 
intelligence to see that Providence now calls upon them 
to take a far more noble and sublime position ? To be 
no longer imitators driven about by every wind of doc- 
trine, but boldly to advance, in raising the tone of bible 
knowledge infinitely above its present mark, and in 
presenting the religion of Jesus in its ancient simple 
Stpostolic character ; then will you compel the respect, 
of the christian world, and receive additions sixty fold. 
Or are you contented to repose amid the things that 
now prevail around you ? If you are contented, I am 
not ! My soul rises far above them ; and I can see that 
the true principles of christian union can hardly yet be 
glanced at. 






CHRISTIAN UNION, &C. ^63 

We are assured by many grave and learned doctors, 
l their theological orations, that their respective church- 
s could not be held together without the use of creeds. 
Perhaps these great men have not enough of faith in 
the guardianship of the church's head ; surely of what 
is good in the church of God we may say that the gates 
of hell shall never prevail against it. Hell's malignant 
millions, and the restless heaving waves of man's cor- 
ruption, may all assail the church of God, but her foun- 
dation standeth sure, having the seal of the Lord's 
&nowiedge and providential help. Whatsoever is good, 
and pure, and lovely, and scriptural, must stand; it is 
based upon the eternal decree of the great Jehovah, 
and cannot come to nought, though creeds and cove- 
nants were cast into the very depths of the sea. What 
fear ye, then, ye soldiers of the Cross, who mann the 
walls of Zion? Oh, I see it; you fear that all that is 
unscriptural among you would totter and fall ; your 
beautiful order of clerical degrees or ascending church 
courts would fall — your papal relics of crossing the in- 
fant brow, or sprinkling it with water, your infant bap- 
tism must perish — these you know could not remain — 
the bible holds them not — your creeds do form their very 
foundation; -and of them we may take up the parable 
of David and say, "If the ^foundations *be destroyed, 
what can the righteous do ? My past experience con- 
vinces me that the creeds and the catechisms, larger 
and shorter, are the very foundations on which rest 
these devices of men. I was trained after the most 
strict and godly sect — the Westminster catechisms were 
instilled into me from earliest youth ; the Westminster 
confession I reverenced as Saul did the. teachings of 
Gamaliel ; .and under the sombre shadows of these 
venerable compilations would I have slumbered to this 
day without a thought of baptism. Bat the arm of op- 
pression made me enquire into the usefulness of my 
creed — the use of it I abandoned — left then out at sea ; 
as some would say, without a star to guide my course, 
save the pale light of heaven's oracles, did I see the 
beautiful ordinance of believers' immersion rising be- 
fore me in all its native simplicity. Never could I have 
seen it through the spectacles of my creed. Oh ! my 



64 CHRISTIAN UNION, &C« 

infant sprinkling brethren, I speak to you in love, I 
charge you in the name of God, away with prejudice ; 
be your only feeling a sincere desire to find the truth, 
forget all former things, and take your seat at Jesus' 
feet ; drive far away the smoke of papal Rome, and 
rise above the shadows of a previous dispensation ; 
hear only Jesus, already you know his doctrine, his or- 
dinances then you soon will understand ; then can we 
meet in love on bible ground, and cry we meet, we meet 
to part no more. 

Another aspect of this unity, is presented by its 
being made the necessary requisite to universal mission- 
ary success. We move but slowly in taking posses- 
sion of the heathen for the Son of God, and that we 
should anticipate so long as we move dividedly. We 
send the preacher of the gospel to China ; he points 
the people to the Lamb of God : but forth goes, too, the 
Jesuit, or the Puseyite, and they point to forms and ser- 
vices ; yet both announce themselves to the natives as 
the disciples of Jesus ; and the people say, very good ! 
but w r e shall stay as we are for the present : when you 
can make up your differences, and agree upon what 
this Christianity is, then we may believe e This view is 
borne out by the fact, that where only one denomina- 
tion has gone, and thus all contention about creeds or 
ceremonies are absent, there the missionary has suc- 
ceeded, and the work of the Lord has prospered in his 
hands. This has been peculiarly the case in the histo- 
ry of the missions in the South seas, conducted by the 
martyred Williams, and to a great extent this has ac- 
counted for the success of the Baptists in Jamaica. Do 
our bowels yearn over a perishing world? Do we long 
to see Jesus reign where'er the sun does his successive 
journeys run ? Then let us banish our creeds, heal up 
our divisions, concentrate all our energies, and, bearing 
only the pure word of testimony, let us make it shine in 
the dark places of the earth. Then shall a united 
church demonstrate, to the conviction of an astonished 
world, that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God 
the Father ; then shall the prayer of Jesus be fulfilled, 
that they all may be one, that the world may know that 
thou hast sent me. 



CHRISTIAN UNION, &C 85 

2. Creeds dishonor the word of God, mystify its 
truths, and retard the progress of christian knowledge. 

An instructive instance of the dishonor which a cling- 
ing to these casts upon the bible, was present here in 
the discussions which have taken place upon this sub- 
ject. One of the officers of your host, long trained in 
ecclesiastical harness, after enumerating a vast variety 
of sects who all profess to be guided by the bible, snaps 
his fingers and assures you, that if you have no other 
gu ide but this, he can't confide in you. Surely Rome 
vviH remember this, and present her compliments ac- 
cordingly. This she has long taught her slavish vota- 
ries ; but she goes farther, she likes not to let the bible 
free, her children must not read it, save when its poison 
is neutralised, or rather its true meaning distorted, by 
the Rhemish notes. Her faith rests not in God's word, 
Jmt in the musty tomes of the thousand-and-one de- 
cress of all her ecclesiastical councils, which volumin- 
ous creed few of her sons have ever fully studied. 

But do not protestants lecture long- and learnedly 
against Roman tradition, and in their dealings wtth his 
holiness they solemnly announce the immortal protest- 
ant principle, "the bible, the bible alone, is the religion 
of protestants :" 'tis well ! the speaker is applauded ; 
but follow him, he returns and seizes again his creed, 
and mixes himself, as before, with human ceremonies, 
while the Romanist is unconvinced, and the infidel 
sneeringly exclaims, "Behold ! it is clerical hypocrisy." 
And all this is done while the assurance of revelation 
is still ringing in our ears, that all scripture is given by 
inspiration of God, and is profitable for reproof, for cor- 
rection, for instruction in righteousness, that the man 
of God may be thoroughly furnished unto all good 
works-. Mark it, thorougly furnished ; but the man of 
God, now-a-days, is not well furnished, unless he hqs 
girded on his creed, and panoplied himself in Saul's 
rusty armour of ecclesiastical decrees, then may he 
go forth and face the Philistines. The attempt to im- 
prove the language of God's word is one of the most 
preposterous thatever man engaged in ; it is contrary 
-<toihe reverential spirit with which a christian ought tp 
^de_aj with an in pired book. Seeing that the wisdom of 
6* 



66 CHRISTIAN UNION, &C. 

God has dictated the volume, it must certainly be given 
in the form best calculated to promote the effect its au- 
thor intended. Are we able to teach the Spirit of the 
Lord to express himself in more appropriate language? 
Can we really correct the diction of the Spirit, and un- 
derstand his meaning better than the- apostles and 
prophets to whom the utterance was given ? Never 
was there an attempt more inconsistent, and partaking 
more of the nature of blasphemy, than for us to ac- 
knowledge that the book is inspired, and yet lay 
our own violent hands upon it, and pretend before the 
world that our words are better than the words of God. 

We should also remember that to change the lan- 
guage of the bible, is to change the meaning of it ; in 
general a change of words is a change of meaning, the 
change may be so slight often as to be almost imper- 
ceptible, yet there is, and must be a change. We have 
got, it is true, dictionaries of synonymes, and yet in re- 
ality there is scarcely such a thing in language as .two 
words in the same tongue perfectly synonymous. 

Why should the people of a country cumber their 
speech by having numerous words to express the same 
idea? They are not so foolish. When the words are 
different, you may foresee to a certainty that there will 
be some change in the meaning; in dictionaries, the 
meanings may so approximate as to answer common 
purposes, but when critical accuracy is required we 
must mark the gentlest shades of difference. Now in 
common pulpit teaching, words are multiplied and 
heaped upon one another ; and if the preacher caji 
convey to his hearers the truth, though it should be by 
a periphrastic round-about explanation, it will answer 
well enough ; but when you come to lay dow# articles 
of faith and tests of christian character, to be useg as 
terms of communion in the church, here the most strict 
and critical accuracy is required, and here the words, 
yes, the precise words of inspiration, will always be 
found best fitted to communicate the precise ideas of 
the Spirit without addition or diminution. In this our 
creeds are tremendously faulty ; their compilers seem 
:tj have acted upon the rule of departing as far as 
possible from the words of inspiration. Hence thqy 






CHRISTIAN UNION, &C. 67 

have gathered the most scholastic, and often the most 
mysterious phrases which could be found in the whole 
range of pagan literature, and mixed all this trash up 
with God's pure word, corrupting the language of Ca- 
naan by intermixing all the dialects of the heathen. 
The specimens of these which could be presented from 
our confessions and old bodies of divimty would appear 
perfectly ludicrous, such as co-essential, co-equal,-co- 
eternal, triune, three in one, one in three, eternally be- 
gotten, eternal procession. It is perfectly interesting, 
and yet saddening, to the christian to see how fashion 
and time can change both religious things and religious 
phrases. In the days of Luther, all was reformation 
work; in the time of Scotland's trials, religion seemed 
all to consist in covenanting work; in our own time, all 
is revival work. Now we have drops of grace, showers 
of grace, and waves of grace, protracted meetings, 
sanctification meetings, covenant meetings, and a 
whole babel of unmeaning phrases and foolish things 
which would need immediately a new theological dic- 
tionary to classify and expound them. 

Amidst all this confusion confounded, there is one 
hope on which the intelligent christian can lean, he 
knows that in a quarter of a century these follies will 
pass away, and give place to perhaps some other stuff 
equally nonsensical ; but, unhurt among all these 
changes, his faith standeth firm in this, "The word of 
the Lord shall endure forever." 

I am pleased to find that my pulpit labors in this 
place have been satisfactory, and that they have been 
considered adapted to the comprehension of all my 
hearers by their simplicity. This arises entirely from 
its being a matter of principle with me to cast aside 
all theological terms not found in the sacred oracles. 
This produces plainness, for God's words are adapted 
to the comprehension of mankind, man's words .are 
dark and mysterious. There is no more beautiful in- 
stance of the wisdom of God than the mode which he 
has adopted of communicating his will to men. 

The bible is not a systematic book; it seems to be 

beyond the ingenuity of metaphysical theologians to 

> reduce it to logical form. It is a simple history pf 



68 Cli&lSTlAN tfNIOtf, &C. 

God's dealings with man, and man's doings against 
God. 

It is not so much a direct revelation, as a history of 
all the revelations that God has made. Thus it becomes 
interesting and edifying to all, so plain that he who 
runs may read ; the young are interested in its beauti* 
j ful historical details ; the old ponder upon its promises 
and prophetic prospects; the most ignorant can under- 
stand its fundamental facts ; the life, death, and resur- 
rection of Jesus lie open to every eye; and faith needs 
,notbe exercised in mysterious theories and dogmas, 
hut in the most substantial historical facts. Put our sys- 
A tei£rs*and creeds and bodies of divinity beside this, and 
ihow dry and musty, how dark and intricate, how stale, 
flat and unprofitable they seem ? How ^destitute of 
purifying influence and of quickening energy they *&ra<? 
O let the word of God go forth as it is, unmutilated, 
unchanged in form, not distorted by man's ingenuity, 
but shining with the lovely radiance of heaven itself, 
aad infidelity will speedily vanish from our shores. 
The corruption of Christianity began by mingling heav- 
en's light .with the ^dazzliiag but false philosophy of the 
Greeks. 

Thus was the qhurch <©f pod Jbrought to bend and 
groan beneath a weight of superstitious inventions; 
they borrowed ideal mysticism fro$r -the Qreeks, pain 
and penances fropi the Asiatic idolaters, j&nd .still as 
she spread, she became more flexible ;| and was ^stori- 
ed into a thousand forms, until Luther arose, and sjvepi 
^way whole masses of the papal rubbish, by bringing 
forth the bible into light. But was the reformation 
complete? No, who could expect it! its authors Ji&d 
but issued from popish darkness themselves„ : and since 
the death of Luther little onward progress has been 
made — 4t yet remains for us to finish. To t^iis day can 
.we trace, in our creeds and systems, the influence of 
Greek philosophy paganizing and corrupting our reli- 
gious views. Never shall we purify ourselves till creeds 
and systems be swept away, aud we have returned to 
c\rink of the pure fountain of eternal truth. 

3. My last charge against creeds is, that they are an 
v qibst^cle i# the way of the acquisition of religion 






-eiraiSTiAx union, &c. 61> 

knowledge. The mines of bible truth arc deep, and 
require constant working : one of the great excellen- 
cies of the book is, that while the essentials of Chris- 
tianity are plain, and lie on the very surface, there are 
other subjects, stretching downward and rising upward, 
to invite the attention of the christian, and secure his 
continued interest in divine things. Of this our Lord 
informs us, when he commands his apostles to teach the 
church all things whatsoever he has commanded. Now, 
in order to the accomplishment of this command of Je- 
sus, his people must be kept alive to the fact, that they 
have not yet attained, and are not yet perfect in reli- 
gious knowledge ; that there are still parts of the 
truths of heaven not yet fully understood. Thus they 
are held in the attitude of scholars sitting at the feet 
of Jesus, hearing his word. 

But allow them to entertain the idea, that the pre- 
cious ore has all been already raised; that in our 
creeds or systems we have a full summary of all need- 
ful knowledge ; then their position becomes changed in 
a moment into that of persons who have already gain- 
ed what they wish for. Xo longer do they march on- 
rd in gaining truth ; they pause and stand still as 
those who are satisfied; they are not now learners, 
they have learned all. it is in their creed ; they look not 
forward to glorious advances of christian knowledge, they 
look backward continually to the perfect system of their 
fathers. I have said that but little advances have bees 
made since the Reformation ; here is the cause, in the 
succeeding age the clergy and the people equally rest- 
ed on their new formed creeds, supposing that ail was 
gained. Sometimes when .a revolutionary stonTi passes 
over a denomination, it wakes them up; and the party 
who secede do go a little onward, but soon they, too, 
put forth their creed, and thus put an extinguisher up- 
on the newly stirred spirit of inquiry. 

But will not so: ne one say that this continual pro- 
gress, this march of spiritual intellect, is dangerous. 
Is then the progress of the physical sciences dangerous ? 
Is the advancement of civilization to be apprehended? 
No, the good results of these are seen, they have placed 
us far in advance of our fathers. Whilst thus the 



¥0 CHRISTIAN UNION, &C. 

works of nature are continually affording new matter 
of praise to the great Creator, should not his word be 
also searched to see if it will not repay the labor. The 
imagination of man has invented a thousand follies, 
and set them forth before the world as religious truths. 
For these God's word is not responsible ; it teaches not 
foolish things ; it gives no color to false systems ; its 
voice is one, and may be heard and understood even to 
the ends of the earth. Wisdom is ever lifting up her 
voice and calling to the children of men ; she is ready 
to teach them holy truths, to open up before their eyes 
the great Creator's law and the Redeemer's mercy, t® 
irradiate the paths of Providence, and bring to view 
even the secret workings of the Almighty. The book 
of God is not dangerous, and no possible evil can be 
apprehended from the freest study of it. The danger 
lies in departing from its precepts. 

Most fearlessly do I say, that every attempt to stop 
the progress of religious knowledge, and lay an arrest 
upon free inquiry, is the act of those who still retain 
the spirit of popery, though they may have cast off the 
name. The constitution of the apostolic churches 
bound the members only by the solemn recognition of 
a few of the most simple and necessary truths of Chris- 
tianity, and, with their steps as free as the steps of him 
who runs in a race, were they expected to haste onward 
in gaining more and more of heaven's truth ; but we 
pledge each member to a whole system of divinity , with 
lall its mysteries and its intricacies, at the very com- 
ipencement of his career ; and, having thus constitu- 
tionally bourid his feet, it is insulting to bid him walk, 
and useless to say to him, "Search ye the Scriptures." 
Why shall he search ? he has his system ready made, 
signed and sealed. How shall he search, or rather 
what shall he do, if he find the word of God different 
from his signed creed ? He dares not search, he is no 
more a freeman. Oh, how many thousands and mik 
lions of christians are deterred from testing all things 
by the word through the fear, the almost conscious fore- 
sight, that investigation would throw them into opposi- 
tion to their creed and system. Clear away, then, the 
stumbling blocks, remove the mountains, free your$ee$ 



CHRISTIAN UNION, &.C. 



n 



from bonds, and with a prayerful desire to know the 
mind of the Spirit, embark on a course of dMigent in- 
vestigation ; new glories will rise before your view, 
pure gems will lie along your path, until your earthly 
career has closed ; then as the former things are pass- 
ed away, you can at last rest amidst the light of heav- 
en's eternal glory. 

I have now, my christian friends, arraigned all human 
creeds upon the most solemn and weighty charges ; but 
ere they be condemned, I am ready to hear their de- 
fence. It is said, that they are needed to keep out er- 
ror from the church of God. I have throughout this 
whole discourse been taking it for granted, that man's 
tendencies to err are strong ; that by departing from 
the word of God in religious matters he is sure to err ; 
but for this the proper cure is to promote and advance 
the study of the holy oracles. But creeds retard this 
study, and thus leave christians open to the most terri- 
ble inroads of error. As Millerism has been sweeping 
over this country, w r hat power had creeds to guard 
against its inroads ? None ! they could not stop its 
course ; and in this respect they have been always use- 
less and inefficient. Creeds were formerly made with 
all due care to keep out and drive away the followers 
of Arius ; but, Arianism, grew under their shadow, and 
spread in spite of creeds, until it died of old age. The 
articles of the church of England were nicely formed 
to guard against Arminianism — so say all ancient wri- 
ters ; but they failed in this, for at this moment it is an 
undoubted fact that a most overwhelming majority of 
those who signed these articles are public and avowed 
Arminians. The kirk of Scotland has her Westmin- 
ster standards to regulate the faith of all her clergy ; 
yet there are in her bosom both moralists and evan- 
gelicals : these all have grown and flourished beneath 
one creed. The Baptists are also said to have a little 
changed — their preaching differs from what it was a 
quarter of a century ago ; and yet (how singular?) that 
this change should happen whilst they were bound and 
guarded by that most supremely excellent of all creeds 
the Philadelphia confession. Under its gracious reign, 
a change takes place, and then a changed people do 
change their creed. 



72 CHRISTIAN UNION, &C« 

Finally, it is written in the page of all christian his- 
tory, that creeds are useless, that they are utterly un^ 
able to keep out error. But is there oppression to be 
exercised? They are then a serviceable ally ! Is some 
high court of star-chamber to be erected ? They are 
wanted. The blood of God^s martyred saints has nev- 
er been shed until they were first condemned by a 
creed. Is a rent to be made among christians, and, in- 
stead of going unitedly to the help of the Lord against 
the mighty, r.re they to become arrayed against each 
other and to exert themselves for each other's extermi- 
nation? You may judge, without inquiry, that a creed 
has been the cause of quarrel. They are the upholders 
of error, the fomenters of dissention, the retarders of 
free inquiry, the fast friends of despotism, the last rel- 
ics of papal iniquity, still lingering amidst the ranks of 
protestantism — and such will they ever be until an 
awakened church shall consign them to eternal oblivi- 
on. 

N. B. This discourse was published in the year 
1843, when I had been only nine months in the 
United States. A part of the Baptists then in the 
State of New Jersey, were bent on upholding the stern 
orthodoxy of their Philadelphia confession ; and they 
never fully forgave me for the attack made upon it in this 
discourse. This eventually, after years of attempted con- 
ciliation, led to my seceding from the Baptist body. 
But a much larger acquaintance with the Baptist de- 
nomination enables me now to say that in most pla- 
ces they are opposed to the creed system and disirous 
of preserving a scriptural phraseology in their exhibi- 
tions of bible truth. 

J. YOUNG. 

September, 1853. 



MEMOIR OF ALEXANDER CARSON, L. L. D. 



Those who undertake to record the lives of literary 
men, often complain of a want of stirring incidents, 
such as enliven the histories of warriors and statesmen. 
The man of letters is compelled, by the very nature of 
his pursuits, to spend much time in retirement, and in la- 
bors which, however useful, possess but little interest 
in narration. 

The beloved individual, of whom we are now to give 
an account, was peculiarly fond of seclusion, and pass- 
ed nearly all his time in the bosom of his own flock, 
without ever attempting to urge his way into the bustle 
of the great world. Yet his life is by no means disti- 
tute of important events, which, if properly presented, 
cannot fail to interest at least the christian reader. He 
was a fearless warrior, who fought, not for an earthly, 
but a heavenly crown ; and whose victories were gain- 
ed, not by destroying, but in laboring to save his fel- 
low men. He was a profound and skilful statesman, 
expounding the laws, not of fleeting human govern- 
ments, but of that divine and spiritual kingdom, which 
is the last and noblest work of the Creator. Shall 
bloody conquerors have their annalists, while the sol- 
diers of Immanuel are forgotten? No! never. The 
names and memorials of God ? s people must live, when 
earth's empires have perished, and oblivion shall cover 
all their glories. 

The scene of Dr. Carson's labors, for a period of 
nearly fifty years, was Tubbermore, a small town in the 
north of Ireland, containing about 2,000 inhabitants. 
The place is so mean in appearance, and so unimpor- 
tant, that geographers and travellers — those universal 
describers — have scarcely deigned to notice it. Its 
principal buildings consist of two meeting-houses and 
a post office. The rural scenery around it is much dis- 
figured by the vicinity of a large Irish bog, on one side of 
which, fronting towards the miry waste, stands the 
white-washed cottage of Alexander Carson. As the 
7 



74 



MEMOIR OF DR. CARSON. 



traveller passes from Tubbermore in the direction of 
D-erry, his eye rests only upon a vast extent of moun- 
tain land, thinly covered with stunted heath, over which 
he may toil the livelong day amid the solitudes of na^ 
ture, uncheered* by any abode of man, except one mis- 
erable hut in the middle of the wide expanse. 

The inhabitants of the north of Ireland are a mixed 
race, the majority being of Scottish origin', whose an- 
cestors fled thither from prelatical persecution, b^cause^ 
they could there enjoy their beloved Presbyterianism, 
unharassed by the soldiers of the English king. Into 
their new home they carried, not only their stable reli- 
gious principles, but their sober industry, and careful 
attention to all the arts of civilized life. By the prac- 
tical application of the steadiness and intelligence, so 
characteristic of the land from which they sprung, the 
north of Ireland has been made to differ as widely from 
the rude and uncultured south, as if they were not both 
parts of the same green isle. Almost every thing in 
this region is Scottish. Three fourths of the people 
n,re Presbyterians ; a few, consisting chiefly of the gen- 
try and their dependants, belong to the Episcopal or 
established church ; the remainder are Roman Catho- 
lic?. The Scottish population are readily distinguish- 
ed by the broad Scotch dialect, which has crossed the 
water, and still continues among them ; while the ori- 
ginal inhabitants are equally well marked by their rud- 
dy complexions, sandy hair, Irish brogue, and strong 
Roman Catholic supertitions. Education has made 
considerable progress in this part of the country ; and 
it may safely be asserted, that the working classes, and 
especially those engaged in agriculture, are much beV 
tor instructed and more intelligent, than the same clash- 
es in England. The people of Tubbermore partake 
largely of the characteristics both of the north and west 
o£ Ireland. Their little village lies almost upon the 
boundnry line between Popery and Protestantism, 
where the two races and religion-* meet and mingle on 
Komewhat etpral terms. In this community, some fifty 
years ago, Mr. Carbon was settled as Presbyterian min- 
ister. His birth was in a place about twelve miles die- 
taut, called Artrae. He had received his education in 



MEMOIR OF DR. CARSON. 75 

;dio University of Glasgow, at the same time with a 
large number of other students, who have since be- 
come eipinent in the religious world. His preparatory 
ssicftl couc$e was of the most thorough kind ; and 
the Closeness o£ his application, during his. residence at 
the University, was evinced by his graduating, with the 
first honors, in n large class, containing, among other* 
afteru a nished, such men as Dr. Wardlaw of 

Glasgow, and Dr. Brown of Langton. It is remark- 
able, that his published works contain replies to sonw 
tactions of each of these his former classmates. 

On his entrance into public life, he speedily manifest- 
ed thai a solid foundation had been laid for future emi- 
nence. Among his earlier writings, wag a work on t\m 
figures of speech, in which he developed those self-evi- 
dent principdes in the philosophy of language, by the 
aid of which he has since been able to clear his way 
through all the sophistries that had entangled and ob- 

ired the imagery of Scripture. This work has been 
regarded as a standard one on the subject of which it 
tree. 

As ; \ to :ian minister, he was highly esteemed 

by Ids brethren, and generally considered one of thje 
first minus connected with that body in Ireland. It is 
very credi table to both parties, that, although he left 
their connection, and has since been much engaged as 
a contr dealing heavy blows upon all w T ho will 

not . the institutions of Christ ; yet the Pres- 

byterians, both ministers and people, still speak of him 
wjlh espect as a christian of devoted pie- 

ty, and award to him as a scholar the highest rank in 
the country. The writer has often heard them express 
their regret that Mr. Carson did not remain in their 
communion, as in that case he would propbably have 
been appointed to the Professorship of Moral Philoso- 
phy in the Royal College of Belfast, as the best quali- 
fied man in Ireland for that situation. 

At the period of Mr. Carson's induction into the chris- 
tian ministry, religion had sadly declined in Ireland. 
'The ministers, who first planted Presbyterianism there, 
were men of burning zeal and holy devotednees. They 
bad lost .all for religion, and for its sake were exiles 



76 MEMOIR OF DR. CARSON. 

from their native land. They, therefore, knew well 
how to value it ; and they infused the same spirit into 
the congregations which they gathered. Filled with a 
first love, those churches then stood forth "fair as the 
moon, clear as the sun, and terrible as an army with 
banners." Their steps were free ; for, although the 
government of the country was against them, still they 
were not persecuted, and were amenable only to King 
Jesus. Courting not the smile of the world, and fear- 
ing not its frowns, they gave their whole hearts to the 
work of the Lord. 

But, alas ! in an evil day for Ireland, Satan, unable 
to destroy the men of God by the flood which he cast 
after them, laid a plan to entrap them in the deceitful 
anare of riches, and to paralize their zeal by the with- 
ering influence of secular patronage. The Irish Pres- 
byterians were supposed to foe unfriendly to the exist- 
ing form of government ; and cunning statesmen, well 
instructed by the prince of darkness, saw T that the most 
effectual way of gaining them over to toryism, was to 
pension their clergy. Overtures were accordingly 
made to them ; and almost all the ministers of the 
Synod of Ulster became at once voluntary stipendia- 
ries of the government, receiving an annual gift from 
the public treasury, termed "Regium Donum." 

This Device had the effect which its authors intend- 
ed. The ministers soon ceased to bear testimony 
against the evils and corruptions of the age. They be- 
came worldly-minded, and spent their time in cultivat- 
ing their fine farms, instead of faithfully preaching the 
gospel, and laboriously tending the vineyard of the 
Lord. Religion was soon allowed to take care of itself. 
Church discipline fell into neglect. Evangelical truth 
gave place to moral essays, and often to absolute so- 
cinianism, in which the whole scheme of human re- 
demption was neutralized. Regeneration, and holiness 
of heart and life were scouted as unnecessary and fa- 
natical. The church-courts became arenas for angry 
debate between the Orthodox and the Arians ; and true 
piety almost abandoned the land. 

At this juncture, Mr. Carson entered upon the minis- 
terial office at Tubbermore. In the general disregard 



MEMOIRS OF I)K. CARSON. i i 

of religion which prevailed, the people of hia charge 
wore not behind their neighbors. Horse-races, eoelt- 
hts, and other forms of sinful diversion were frequent, 
I were numerously attended even by professing chris- 
tians. The soul of this pious servant of God worn 
deeply grieved. He knew well the heaven-born excel- 
lence of Christianity, and clearly understood what should 
be "the fruits of the Spirit;" but he behel I around him 
only the works of the devil. He rode into the throng 
that crowded the race-course, and there saw the mem- 
bers of his o~wn church flying in every direction to es- 
cape from his sight. What was he to do? He had 
preached the truth fully — had warned the offenders of 
.their danger, and set before them the terrors of the 
Lord. But now he felt that there was another step to 
be taken. This was the exercise of Scriptural discip- 
line upon those who would not live as christians ; a 
task easy in thought, but which he found most difficult 
in execution. These people had been introduced into 
the church just eight days after their entrance into the 
world. They had drunk in their religion with their in- 
fant nourishment. They had been permitted to ap- 
proach the sacramental table xis soon as they possessed 
the important qualification of being able to repeat the 
"Shorter Catechism." They paid the stipend regular- 
ly — had their own pews in their meeting-house — and 
Felt that, while they attended divine service on Sun- 
day, brought forward their children for baptism, and 
committed no gross immorality, they had an ungues 
tioned right to the privileges of the church, and ought 
not to be placed' ' ex- cathedra" for such trifling matters 
as vain amusements, and a worldly life. Iji short, they 
held themselves perfectly independent, and spurned all 
the restraints of discipline. Aid was then sought by 
Mr. Carson from the higher court, the Presbyter}'. 
Here certainly he might expect, that delinquents would 
be dealt with according to their merits. Here lay the 
great statute-book of the kingdom of the clergy — the 
Westminster Confession of Faith. Here also was the 
lesser light, the "Code of Discipline," containing the 
enactments, partly of the Bible, and partly of the 
Churoh, with all the legal rules of proceeding in etefta 
7* 



T8 MEMOIRS OP DR. CARSOX. 

of "fama clamosa." And here were the Reverend, the 
Clergy, lords of God's heritage, ready to execute the 
laws. Surely, could he once put this mighty machine 
ry in motion, his infected flock must speedily be purifi- 
ed from unworthy members. But no ! far from it. 
This vast system of church-laws had not been framed 
to regulate the conduct of a spiritual body, like the 
; priuiitive churches — for whose government the rules of 
the Bible would have been sufficient— but to hold togeth- 
er, in a state of religious formalism, the unnatural and 
discordant amalgamation of saint and sinner, the wheat 
and the tares, the church and the world. Now this was 
precisely the condition of the people at Tubbermore. 
They had the "form of godliness," but were destitute of 
its power ; and the legislation of a formal church could 
supply no remedy. 

Abandoning his hope of church improvement from 
the workings of ecclesiastical courts, Mr. Carson now 
leathered around him all that had been written upon 
church government, and toiled his way through the 
heaps of rubbish by which he was encompassed ; until, 
casting aside. all 'human teaching, and guided only by 
the light of inspiration, his ; eye rested on the simple, 
scriptural model, of a congregation of spiritual men, 
governing themselves solely by the word of God. Then 
did he, for the first time, perceive the real difficulties in 
which he had been placed. *His church was composed 
of worldly people, whom neither fore- i>or persuasion 
could bring into subjection to the laws of Christ. The 
work thus extended before him into one of awful mag- 
nitude, and in it vain was the help of man. The ^build- 
ing was to be ; laid anew of lively stpnes — of members, 
fitted by a renovated nature, to have place in the tem- 
ple of the Lord. The well defined outline of the house 
of God — the beautiful exemplar of New Testament 
Christianity — now rose before him, in all its harmonious 
proportions, and radiant with its first loveliness ; con- 
centrating upon itself his most ardent affections, and 
strengthening his faith, that he might be able fearless- 
ly to execute the task of developing it before his fellow- 
men. 

One of Ins first objects was to regain his religious 



MEMOIRS OF DR. CARSON. 7U 

freedom by abandoning the Synod. In a work which 
he published at this time, entitled "Reasons for leaving 
the Synod of Ulster," he sets down this as his second 
reason for taking that important step. "I cannot," he 
says, "be a member of the General Synod, without re- 
nouncing my christian liberty, and submitting my con- 
science to be ruled and lorded over by man. I am not al- 
lowed to be directed by my own conscience in the ser- 

e of my blaster. I must not act on my own conviction 
of what is right and wrong ; but -according to the ca- 
price of others ; nay, of those whom I esteem the de- 
cided enemies of the Lord Jesus." 

In this production, he maintains, with great force of 
reasoning, the primitive independence of the churches. 
From his argument on this point, we extract a few pas- 
sages, in order to show the principles by which he was 
actuated in this interesting crisis of his history. 

"That form of church government which is capable of 
the least abuse, is the most likely to be divine. Now, 
unquestionably, this is Independency. If a particular 
church on this pian degenerates, becomes erroneous, or 
indifferent, it has no power to injure others, or draw 
them into its errors. If all the independent churches of 
a nation were to degenerate except one, that one can- 
not be compelled or overawed to follow 7 their example. 
But it is quite contrary with Presbyterianism. I know, 
indeed, it is said, that the Presbyterian system is bet- 
ter calculated to prevent error from creeping into con- 
gregations, by the power which the majority claims 
over the minority. But how should one man, or one- 
congregation, keep another from error? By compul- 
sion, or persuasion? I apprehend there is no lawful 
means for o£e church to keep another from error, but 
by remonstrance and exhortation. If these fail, pains, 
penalties, imprisonments, confiscations, and death, 
would be useless. Force ip.ay make hypocrites, but can 
n^ver make a christian. .But let the history of Synods 
vouch their utility and efficiency in restraining error, 
and preserving vital religion. They may for a time 
preserve orthodoxy in the letter, but midnight darkness 
may reign with an orthodox creed. 'The natural man 
cannot know the things of the Spirit of God, because 



BO MEMOIR OF DR. CARSON. 

they are spiritually discerned.' Vital religion seems in 
a great measure extinguished, even among those who 
make the highest pretensions to orthodoxy. A violent, 
wrathful spirit of party, and an ardent zeal for human 
forms and human creeds, seem pretty generally substi- 
tuted for spirituality, and catholic christian love ,: 

"Again, that form of church government which can- 
n ot preserve ,purity of doctrine without human expedi- 
ents, is not iso likely to be the scripture model, as thai 
which can attain and preserve the highest possible de- 
gree of vital religion, as well as purity of doctrine, 
without admitting, in any instance, the devices of the 
wisdom of man. Now it is generally acknowledged 
by Presbyterians themselves, that it is impossible to 
maintain uniformity of opinion among them, without a 
formula, or Confession df Faith, io be publicly recog- 
nized by all the members. But it must be evident po 
-every unprejudiced person, that there is no formula in 
the Scriptures. That constitution, then, which requires 
one to maintain purity, is no1 likely to be of God." 

"Lastly, that form of church government which leads 
its most to the Scriptures, and requires in church mem- 
bers the greatest acquaintance with them, is the most 
likely to be that of the New Testament. Now, without 
an intimate acquaintance with the Bible, Independent* 
cannot advance a step in church affairs. I might speak 
from what I have witnessed of the knowledge of the 
Scriptures among Independents. But I speak only of 
its necessity, arising from the constitution of their 
churches. With them it is absolutely essential, not 
merely in church rulers, but in private members. The 
Bible is their code of laws ; they have no other confes- 
sion or book of discipline. They can do nothing with- 
out it ; it must be continually fin their hands ; the rulers 
rule only by the word of God. But a nmn may be a 
Presbyterian all his life, either pastor or private mem- 
ber, with a very slender acquaintance with the Bible. 
A knowledge of forms and of ancient usages, of eccle- 
siastical canons and books of discipline, is the chi^f 

t qualification necessary for a Presbyterian judicatory." 
Influenced by views such as these, and strong in the 

^onQlusiojis to which he had arrived, Mr. Carson th^W 






MEMOFR OF DR. CARSON. 81 

up liis government salary, and removed from the farm 
he had formerly occupied, that he might devote himself 
more entirely to his ministerial work. It was deemed 
at the time a most astonishing occurrence, that a man 
high in public favor, of splendid talents, and elevated 
piety, should abandon a church in what wag called the 
zenith of its glory, to take up his abode with poverty 
and contempt. Little could the people comprehend the 

Bower of christian principle by which he was impelled- 
[ence they concluded with respect to him, as FestuH 
did concerning Paul, that "much learning had made him 
mad ;" and his presumed insanity w T as received by ma- 
ny, as the only rational explanation of a course of con- 
duct so far above the wisdom of this w T orld. He was 
then married and had a rising family. His wife was 
the daughter of a Mr. Leidly, a linen-bleacher of wealth 
and respectability, residing in the same county. On 
hearing of the sad tale of the heresy of his son-in-law, 
Mr. Leidly immediately visited him, and spent a long 
time in endeavoring to persuade him to return to the 
Synod. Tired of his importunities, and well knowing 
what would be the result, Mr. Carson told him that he 
would leave the w T hole matter to the decision of his 
wife. With renewed hope the father betook himself to 
his daughter; placed before her the good that might 'be 
done, and the comforts which they.mi^ht enjoy, by re- 
tracing their steps ; and, on the other hand, set forth, 
in gloomy colors, the poverty into which they would he 
thrown by continuing in their present position ; declar- 
ing the firm determination to .which he had come, never, 
in that case, to relieve them ; .and assuring her that her 
children would soon be starving for bread. But how 
full of serene faith and pious confidence was her reply.*! 
"Father, 5 ' said she, "God fe^ds the young lavens when 
they cry unto him ; and I cannot believe, that, while we 
are striving to do his will, he will let the young Carsons 
starve." Thus did that noble woman sustain and cheer 
on her husband in his trying hour, and forsake, not only 
houses and lands, but father and mother, in obedience 
to the commands of Christ. From that day, she was 
to her parents as a stranger. What ••& sublime spectacle 
is it, to behold the christian struggling, by the sacrifice 



§2 MEMOIR OP DR. CARSON. 

Of all that earth holds dear, to free himself from the 
domination of his fellow men, and from the customs of 
the world — not that he may enjoy a licentious liberty, 
and walk after the imagination of his own heart; but 
that he may bring his soul into more complete subordi- 
nation to the statutes of Heaven's King, and devote 
his life more unreservedly to the service of God— that 
thus God may be "all in all !" 

For some years after his secession from the General 
Synod, Mr. Carson continued to occupy his former place 
of worship, and to preach to the congregation as be- 
fore. But he had now embraced a principle which con- 
tained within it the germ of yet further reform. He 
had recognized the Bible as the only law-book in the 
kingdom of Christ ; and had taught those members of 
his church who still adhered to his ministry, to rise 
above human authority and human customs in religion, 
and bring all things to the Word and Testimony 
of God. It was by losing sight of this radical princi- 
ple, that early Christianity degenerated into Romish 
superstition. Ecclesiastical authority laid the founda- 
tion, and worldly policy raised the superstructure of that 
mass of abominations, which is to be destroyed by the 
brightness of the Lord's coming. The partial applica- 
tion of this principle shook the Papal hierarchy, and 
brought forth the reformed churches from its dark em- 
brace. And it is to its full, fearless, and faithful appli- 
cation alone, that we are to look for a complete eman- 
cipation from the trammels of will-worship, and from 
the various admixtures and perversions by wdrich men 
have corrupted the simplicity of the Gospel. This use 
of the Bible as the only law-book, and the rejection- of 
ecclesiastical authority, carried Mr. Carson and his con- 
gregation to results, of which, in the beginning, they 
little dreamed. Of such progress, however, they are 
far from being solitary examples. The history of reli- 
gious reformations demonstrates, that in all cases where 
this single elemantal truth has been clearly developed, 
and widely brought into exercise, it has uniformly led 
in the same direction ; and, consequently, has produced 
a new basis of christian union, differing widely from 
any which human systems have ever afforded. In th© 



CMOIR OF tfR. CARSON. 83 

Baptist Memorial of July, 1844, we find an account of 
the rise Lnd establishment of the Baptist church in 
Sturbridge, Massachusetts. The narrative informs us, 
that, in the preaching of Whitfield and the Tennants, 
a principle was held forth and inculcated, which led to 
conclusions that they themselves neither adopted nor 
contemplated. "They taught that the Bible, and tho 
Bible alone, is the religion of Protestants. The conse- 
quences of this position, however, those excellent men 
iid not follow out in their full length. But others, 
guided by the light which this sentiment sheds upon 
the mind, began vigorously to enquire, not only what 
are the great fundamental truths of Christianity, but al- 
so what are the ordinances of Christ's house. The re- 
sult was, that many of the converts of those days, bo- 
came Baptists. Taking the Scriptures for their only 
guide, they arrived by a plain and direct course of rea- 
soning at this result. This was the origin of the Bap- 
tist church in Sturbridge. At first they believed in and 
practised infant sprinkling. The fact that this is mot 
an ordinance of Scripture, had probably never entered 
their minds. But still the other principles which they 
had adopted, especially that of making the Bible thi 
supreme arbiter in religion, prepared the way for their 
giving up that unscriptural ceremony." 

About the time that Mr. Carson left the Presbyterians 
in Ireland, a mighty movement towards primitive chris*- 
tianity also rook place in Scotland. The Haldanes, to- 
gether with Wardlaw, Ewing, and Innis, had become 
alive to the unscriptural character of worldly churches : 
and were busy in organizing christian societies upon 
the Bible only, with the sincere determination to regu- 
late all the ordinances of Christ's house in accordance 
with the plain dictates of Revelation. They adopted 
tho congregational order, and weekly communion, 
throughout Scotland ; but were not Baptists. 

In the year 1807, James Haldane, after having sprink- 
led an infant, was accosted by his little son, a child of 
six years old, with the pertinent question, "Father, did 
that child believe ?" "No," said the surprised parent, 
"why do you ask me such a question ?" "Because, fa- 
ther, I have read the whole of the New Testament, and 



b 



84 Memoir of dr. carsok. 

I find that all, who were baptized, believed. Did the 
child believe ?" It was enough. God's simple truth, 
which had been hidden from the wise and prudent, was 
revealed to the babe. The strange question, "Did the 
child believe ?" haunted the mind of the father, until r 
after a thorough examination, he renounced his former 
errors, and was publicly immersed. His brother Robert 
soon followed his example. Whole churches saw the 
light of this ordinance flashing upon them ; and thous- 
ands of the most devoted men of Scotland, who had 
taken the Bible as their sole directory, reformed their 
"Tabernacle Reformation," and followed the Lord fully. 
Now it is certain that when Mr. Carson withdrew from 
the Presbyterian connection, he had no idea of becom- 
ing a Baptist. Indeed, several of his flock were before 
him in discovering the fact that believers only are the 
proper subjects of baptism. For when the question 
was first mooted among them, and some became con- 
vinced that infant sprinkling was never instituted by 
Christ — although he did not attempt to interfere with 
their obedience — yet he took ground against the novel- 
ty ; and, as he himself says, "defended the citadel, 
while he had any ammunition in the store-house." But 
the mind of Carson could not but advance to right con- 
clusions. His reasoning powers had been too thorough- 
ly disciplined, for insufficient evidence long to satisfy 
him — -especially now, when the laws of the church could 
no more settle the matter, but the appeal must be made 
directly to the Bible. Truth was his fortune — his de- 
light — his all ; and for the truth of God he was ready 
to suffer trials even greater than had yet fallen to his 
lot. It is deeply to be regretted that there is in the re- 
ligious world so little real love for truth ; or rather, we 
should say, so little inclination to enter upon those in- 
quiries which might issue in its attainment. Heathen 
sages, by calm and candid investigation, were able to 
rise far above the superstitious customs of their coun- 
trjmen ; and for such scattered rays of divine light as 
fell on the mind of a Socrates, were willing to lay down 
their lives. But now the painful fact cannot be con- 
cealed, that, while the glories of Heaven's Revelation 
are beaming upon us, we suffer prejudice to retard our 



MEMOIR OF DR. CARSON, 85 

researches, or fear of consequences to prevent us from 
doing our duty. Mr. Carson deserves no praise. He 
only did what every christian ought to do. He received 
and he obeyed the truth. But what vast multitudes, 
with the truth shining clearly before them, refuse to fol- 
low where it leads ! 

The object, moreover, for which Mr, Carson w T as striv- 
ing, could not be gained without the surrender of infant 
church-membership. He saw around him manifold evi- 
dences of the fearful danger which resulted to the souls 
of men, from allowing those, who had nothing of Chris- 
tianity but the name, to share the privileges of the 
church relation. He had renounced the Synod, in or- 
der that he might enjoy a purer communion, and be 
guiltless of the blood of all men. This noble purpose 
led him directly to the inquiry, in what the qualifications 
for church-membership consisted. He perceived that 
the House of God was designed to be wholly spiritual, 
composed of lively stones united to Christ, the living 
Head. From that inspired volume, to whose teachings 
he implicitly bowed, he learned, that the true members 
of the christian family were sons, born not of blood, 
nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but 
of God — begotten by him through the incorruptible 
seed of his truth which abideth forever ; that laith is indis- 
pensable to a unio:t with the body of Christ, that faith 
cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of God ; and 
that, consequently, infants, incapable alike of hearing 
and of believing, and growing up with all the manifes- 
tations of a carnal nature, were not lawful subjects for 
admission into the brotherhood of the renewed. Could 
he introduce these unregenerate offspring of Adam into 
the church of Christ, on the right of their natural birth, 
and in the vague anticipation that they might after- 
wards be born again ? And if he did thus mingle the 
seed of men with the sons of God, could he expect to 
guard against the tendencies in such a society to a 
merely formal religion ?" Could he admit the children 
of believers to religious privileges along with believers 
themselves and yet have a pure, regenerated church, 
qualified for spiritual communion with its Lord ? No ; 
this was more than he could accomplish ; and never will 
8 



&6 ft'EMOm OF DR. CAB30& 

the mgew&Liij of man, with all Its multifarious devices 
he able to effect it. It is impossible ! The very at- 
tempt is an absurdity w&ose folly and hopelessness all 
history and all experience have conclusively demon- 
strated. 

When it was found that Mr. Carson, so far from be- 
ing likely to return to the Synod, was proceeding yet 
further in his course of reform, the hostility of the dis- 
affected portion of his own church could no longer be 
restrained. Vigorous efforts were now made by the 
Presbyterians to dispossess him of the meeting-house. 
A party was organized, whose business it should be to 
eject him by force. While he was preaching, on a 
Lord's day, to a large congregation, they entered, and 
announced their intention of thrusting him from the 
pulpit. He quieted the rising tumult, and requesting 
the intruders to wait until the close of his discourse, as- 
sured them that he would then voluntarily retire. They 
accepted the proposal, and remained. After the servi- 
ces were concluded, as he descended from the pulpit, 
and was passing out, one of his deacons lifted the Bible 
from the desk, swung it upon his shoulder^ and taking 
up his march in the rear of his pastor, exclaimed, "let 
all who icish to follow the Bible come this way" The house 
was instantly emptied. A vast mass congregated in a 
green field near by ; and there, guided by the Bible, as 
by a shekinah of glory, a little band, sixteen in number, 
partook, with hearts joyful amid their tribulations, of 
the emblems of their Redeemer's love. This was the 
feeble beginning of greater things- — the chrysalis from 
which was to spring a glorious gospel church, walking 
in the ordinances of Christ blameless, and pouring a 
flood of light upon the surrounding rgion. Prom that 
period, the Lord has been constantly adding unto them 
the saved, insomuch that their present number approach- 
es 500, although very many baptized into their fellowship 
have removed from the district. They have also had the 
happiness of seeing other churches rising up around them, 
on the same apostolical model, and, animated by a kindred 
spirit, observing and promoting a strict obedience to the 
requirements of the Savior. 

After they had left their meeting-house, they assem- 
bled for worship, during summer, in the open air ; and in 



TtlEMOm OF DR. CARSON- 87 

winter, in an old barn kindly lent them for the purpose. 
Thus they continued to meet, until the shell of their 
new house was erected. We say the shell, for their 
means enabled them to do little more than to put up 
the walls and enclose the building. For many years 
they occupied that house, and saw it crowded by large 
congregations, although only an earthen floor support- 
ed them, and the eye was permitted to scan the rude 
frame-work of a roof unrelieved by an ornamented ceil- 
ing. Latterly, they have considerably enlarged it to 
accommodate their increasing numbers ; and we believe 
that the improving taste of the age has been evinced in 
removing some of its more glaring architectural defects- 
Still, however, the English visitor is apt to return to his 
own more favored Isle, with his imagination filled with 
strange pictures of Irish ruralness and simplicity. Yet 
humble as that building is, that can be said of it which 
was never true of many a gorgeous cathedral — that for 
many years a pure gospel has resounded there ; and 
that there the living word has been the power of God 
unto salvation to a multitude of souls, who though 
some of them are scattered far from their native village, 
will ever remember the hallowed spot which witnessed 
their birth into an everlasting kingdom. 

The situation of Mr. Carson, at the period when he 
thus went forth from his old connections, was peculiarly 
trying. His regular means of subsistence were now all 
gone. He had thrown himself upon the voluntary of- 
ferings of God' \ people ; they were willing to do what 
they could ; but that was little, as the more wealthy of 
his former congregation had remained by "the stuff" 
Another minister was called to occupy the pulpit which 
he had vacated ; and the men of means and influence 
soon rallied around the standard of the things that had 
been. For, at all times, as in the time of Jesus of Na- 
zareth, the question goes, "Have any of the rulers be- 
lieved on him ?" Unfortunately it occurs, that our lit- 
tle, petty aristocracies can hardly ever find their way to 
truth, unless truth happens first to find its way to popu- 
lar favor, by the help of God and the poor. Then, in- 
deed, when it has become fashionable, they will awake 
as from a dream, and graciously patronize it. Thus did 
fhe respectable citizens of Tubbermore abandon in bi* 



88 MEMOIRS OF DR. CARSOK\ 

difficulties a m&ft whom the world will admire, and 
elect to themselves another christian teacher who will 
scarce ever be heard of beyond Ws own two-mile circle. 
Nobly, however, have the people of the district since re- 
deemed their character, by flocking around the banner 
of Bible truth which Mr. Carson unfurled. Never 
did a man more fearlessly trust the promises of God, 
and never were those promises more faithfully verified 
than in his case. He has at no time received from his 
people more than $250 per annum ; and for a long pe- 
riod subsequent to the events we have been narrating, 
the support which they were able to afford him was far 
less. Yet he has always lived in comparative comfort ; 
has been blessed with a numerous family ; has educated 
them well ; and placed them in respectable situations 
of usefulness to themselves and to society. To this re- 
sult, the extensive sale of his valuable waitings has no 
doubt materially contributed. 

Mr. Brown, the minister who was installed in the 
Tubbermore church afterMr. Carson's secession, Vas a 
man of rather combative propensities ; and, mistaking 
his vocation, he considered himself as placed in a sort 
of dangerous pass, for the defence of the faith as it is 
inPresbyterianism. Hence he has been frequently en- 
gaged in hostile demonstrations, which, if he had more 
correctly estimated his own abilities, and the strength 
of his cause, he would have studiously avoided. After 
the publication of Mr. Carson's work on "The mode and 
subjects of Baptism," an attempt at reply was made 
by Mr. Brown, and a rejoinder was also published by 
the author. This little controversy finally extended to 
perhaps two pamphlets on each side. In the present 
revised edition of his work, Mr. Carson has embodied 
nearly all the pamphlets which he previously issued in 
answer to the criticisms of various eminent men both in 
Great Britain and America; but he has shown his sense 
of the futility of Mr. Brown's reviews, by omitting alto- 
gether his refutations of them. This Tubbermore dis- 
cussion, although not worthy of being handed down to 
posterity in the following immortal work, yet served to 
convince many in that immediate vicinity, that their 
previous practice was not so capable of defence as they 



had 'Fondly hqped. The consequence was, that Mr. 
Carson's church began rapidly to increase; and the 
people, laying aside their former notion of his insanity, 
now listened to him as one more competent to expound 
the Scriptures than the men by whom he was surround- 
ed. 

The church at Tubbermore became Baptist by de- 
grees. Some of the members; were baptized before the 
pastor. Owing, probably, in part to this circumstance, 
they have never regarded an obedience to this ordinance 
as an indispensable condition of admission to the Lord's 
supper. Indeed, they have carried the principle of 
open commuion to the utmost extent, by receiving 
members into their body simply upon evidence of their 
conversion, with but little inquiry whether they agreed 
with them on the subject of Baptism, expecting that 
whenever they became convinced of their duty to be 
immersed, they would attend to it. 

To the great majority of Baptists it will appear, that 
this practice, together with their open communion, was 
not in accordance with the example of those primitive 
churches, which, in other points, it was Mr. Carson's de- 
'light to imitate ; and that its tendency must be to throw 
into the shade an ordinance prominent in the New Test- 
ament, and to dissever baptism from the gospel of 
which it is so expressive an emblem. Certain it is, how- 
ever, that Mr. Carson believed this plan to be consistent 
with the will of the Lord ; and this fact, while it may 
seem to show that his views of gospel order were not, 
in all respects, precise and clear, is, at the same time, a 
strong proof of his extreme liberality and kindness of 
disposition. It ought, therefore, to bespeak for his 
writings a very favorable attention from those who are 
soloudin their complaints of the want of charty among 
Baptists. He was as charitable as their hearts could 
wish ; and was ever more ready to hold fellowship even 
with those Pedobaptists, who otherwise taught a pure 
gospel, than with such Baptists as he might conceive to 
have departed from genuine orthodoxy. 

He united, in a wonderful degree, an enlarged chari- 
ty with the holiest boldness in defence of truth. In all 
the intercourse of private life, he eminently displayed 
8* 



90 MEMOIR OF DR. CARSON. 

the humility and gentleness of the christian character. 
Indeed, he seemed simple and childlike even to a fault. 
Yet his productions are remarkable for the boldness and 
originality of the thoughts, the strength of the argu- 
ments, and the severity of the rebukes, which they con- 
tain. Many have conceived a most erroneous impres- 
sion of his whole character from the apparent harshness 
of his criticisms. This, however, arises, in a great 
measure, from a mistake as to the origin of what may 
be called "the attic salt" in writing. The author of Juni- 
us was probably a very good natured man, although his 
writings are fearfully severe. He knew that the disease 
which he had to treat, required a powerful remedy ; and 
he applied a caustic one. No man of ill temper can 
write keenly. As the razor, when its edge 'becomes ruf- 
fled, will not cut freely ; so angry passion weakens the 
force of argument, and prevents criticism from taking 
effect. The man who would criticise with vigor, must 
possess the power of self-control in a large degree. 
Coolness will enable him to polish his shafts, and direct 
them to the best advantage. Anger and wrath evapo- 
rate in abuse. But no one will find this applied by Mr. 
Carson to his opponents. True, he will not allow im- 
pertinent quiblers, who, to support the system of their 
own party, continue still to argue against the clearest 
demonstrations of Scripture, to pass without rebuke. 
And where is the ardent lover of truth, who will not say 
that such ought to be rebuked and made to retire 
ashamed, that the public mind may no more be darken- 
ed by their perversions? We frankly confess that the . 
more we read on the baptismal controversy, the more 
our charity compels. us to struggle against the convic- 
tion which forces itself upon us, that, on this subject, it 
is not light that .is most wanted — but religious honesty. 

If, beyond this, it should still be supposed that there 
are, in Mr. Carson's writings, instances of unwarrant- 
able severity, we would submit, in alleviation, the na- 
tional character. The Irish people are remarkable for 
vigorous conceptions and strong feelings, which they ex- 
press w.'th very little attention to softness and suavity of 
language; and when this Irish vehemence is united 
vith an ardent love of truth, and dislike of subtle perr 



MEMOIR OF DR. CARSON. 91 

versions, it may give to their publications an appear- 
ance of unkindness which is really very foreign to the 
writers themselves. Certain it is, that Mr. Carson has 
been most favorably known as a pf ace-maker; and 
when troubles have arisen in some of the little churches 
of Ulster, his presence and prudent counsels have gen- 
erally contributed to settle their difficulties, and to calm 
their agitations. 

As a preacher, he was very remarkable. He posses- 
sed all the solid qualifications of an orator, without any 
of the pomp and display usually attendant upon those 
who are regarded as good speakers. His manner was 
natural and graceful. His illustrations were very abund- 
ant, but never learned or far-fetched. The scenes of 
rural life supplied him with a rich fund of incidents and 
analogies, that enabled him to make truth rplain to the 
weakest capacity, and which told powerfully on the un- 
sophisticated sympathies of human nature. His usual 
course was, not to sermonize, but to expound the word 
of God, by passing regularly through its successive -por- 
tions. This plan afforded him full opportunity to bring 
out all the latent resources of his mind, and to apply 
his vast learning to the important practical purpose of 
solving the various difficulties which his hearers might 
encounter in their reading ; while it enabled him com- 
pletely to avoid that petty ingenuity which is too often 
exercised in building a discourse upon some insujated 
or perverted sentence. 

The results of expository teaching have always been 
of the most delightful kind. It was the invariable cus- 
-tom of Scottish preachers, in former times, to employ 
the forenoon of every Lord's day in the exposition of a 
chapter. This they denominated lecturing ; and so 
highly did the people value this exercise., th at, iu calling 
a young minister to a parish, the great question was, 
not how he could preach, but how he could lecture. Of 
these congregations, as compared with those of our 
own time, we believe it might almost be said, "There 
were giants in those days." The fact is, that the great 
mass of professors in this age, though evidently display- 
ing a more enlightened and christian liberality than 
.their forefathers, are far behind them in familiar ac- 



92 MEMOIR OF DR. CAftSdN. 

quaintance with their Bibles; and mast, we fear, re- 
main so while the practice continues of making preach- 
ing consist mainly in uninstr active appeals to feeling. 
In religion, as in every thing else, the judgment ought 
to be the regulator both of the affections and the con- 
duct. The great facts of Bible history form a solid 
foundation on which Christianity rests, plain to every 
mind, and speaking to every heart. The piety that is 
built upon an intimate knowledge of these, and a cordi- 
al faith in them, can weather all storms ; while that 
which depends upon the changing eddies of human 
emotion, can withstand nothing, and is entirely delusive. 

Under the mc$de of teaching above described, the 
church over which Mi 5 . Carson presided gre,w exceeding- 
ly in scriptural intelligence, and a comprehensive un- 
derstanding of divine things. In this particular, the 
writer regards them as having surpassed any christian 
society with which it has ever been his lot to mingle; 
and his opportunities for observation have not been lim- 
ited within a narrow circle. Among them many young 
men have been trained up, who are now scattered 
abroad, laboring in the gospel, either as city missiona- 
ries, or as pastors of churches. The high state of intel- 
ligence to which this people have been brought, may 
also be partly owing to the abundant opportunities af- 
forded the members for the exercise and cultivation of 
their gifts. It has generally been their custom to allow 
such brethren as were skilled in the word of righteous- 
ness, to speak to their fellow men in the public assem- 
bly, in accordance, as they believe, with the direction of 
the Apostle. "Let us wait — him that teacheth on teach- 
ing, and him that cxkortclii on exhortation" 

This practice, it must be admitted, has been carried 
by the Scotch Baptists to a most extravagant length. 
Many of them have concluded that the members of a 
church have a right to talk, whether it be to the edifica- 
tion or the annoyance of others. As those least quali- 
fied to speak well, arc often most fond of hearing their 
own voice, the custom, when thus licentiously indulged, 
has invariably banished the congregation, and left the 
would-be orator to address himself to empty benches. 
It has also contributed to destroy Jthe regular ministry 



MEMOIR OF DR. CARSON. 03 

which Christ has instituted, by leading the members of 
churches to suppose that it was better for them to do 
the work of christian teaching by turns, than to sustain 
any one man as a constant preacher of the gospel. 
These are some of its abuses. But what good thing 
may not be abused ? It must, we think, be obvious to 
every mind, that all which is to be done for the spread 
of the gospel in a congregation, was never intended 
by the great Head of the Church to be thrown upon the 
shoulders of one man ; but that all the members of the 
body should bear their part, each in his appropriate 
sphere, and in that department of duty to which he is 
best adapted. In this way, by prudent and judicious 
employment of the gifts which God has bestowed, the 
talents of the church may be brought out, and many a 
christian fitted fo* usefulness, whose capacity for doing 
good might otherwise have remained comparatively 
hidden and unknown. 

The congregation at Tubbermore was also divided 
into districts ; and in each locality meetings were held, 
which were addressed, with great effect, by a band of 
brethren who gave themselves diligently to the study of 
the scriptures ; and who were competent, from their 
knowledge and piety, to act as preachers in almost any 
situation. Thus the word of the Lord had free course 
and was glorified ; while the pastor had leisure to make 
full preparation for his public duties. 

Every Lord's day, for the last forty years, has this 
church commemorated the Savior's death by breaking 
of bread, regarding it as binding upon them to do so, 
as often as the return of hollowed time calls them to 
remember his resurrection. This is a universal prac- 
tice amongst all the Congregational and Baptist church- 
es both in Scotland and Ireland. As authority for it, 
they appeal to Acts xx 7 : "And upon the first day of 
the week, when the disciples came together to break 
bread, Paul preached unto them." From this they in- 
fer that one of the most prominent objects for which 
the churches met on that day, was the breaking of 
bread. In their belief that such was the primitive cus- 
tom, they consider themselves sustained by what is 
known of the manner in which christian institutions 



94 MEMOIR OF BR. CARSON. 

were observed for many years after the death of the 
Apostles. On this point, they cite the testimony of 
Justin Martyr, who, in his Second Apology for Christi- 
anity, says, "On the first day of the week all christians, 
in the cities and in the country, are wont to assemble 
together, because it is the day of the Lord's resurrec- 
tion. They then read the sacred writings; listen to an 
oration from the bishop ; join together in prayer ; par- 
take of the Lord's supper ; and close by a collection for 
the widows and poor.' } This may be viewed as an in- 
teresting picture of Apostolical order in its native sim- 
plicity, before the rude hand of corruption had marred 
its fair proportions. 

The increasing frequency with which this ordinance 
is observed, among most evangelical denominations, is 
a pleasing feature of the present day ; and we cannot 
but regard the extensive change from annual commu- 
nion— a custom derived from the superstitions of Rast- 
er — to its monthly celebration, as a cheering approach 
to primitive example. 

Mr. Carson's church were accustomed to partake of 
the supper in the public assembly, during the morning 
service, believing that, in this manner, they made it an 
instrument of really showing forth the Lord's death, 
and proclaiming, by visible emblem, the great facts of 
his Gospel; and deeming the ordinance far more lively 
and impressive when thus administered in the midst of 
surrounding spectators, than when observed, as is often 
the case, in the general absence of the congregation. 

The peculiarities of church order to which we have 
now alluded, served for a long period, to keep up a 
sort of denominational distinction between the churches 
in Scotland and the north of Ireland, and the English 
Baptists. It was thought by the former, that too little 
attention was paid,, on the part of the hitler, to the 
scriptural model of church government; while, by the 
churches of Scotland especially, a narrow-minded and 
unlovely spirit was manifested towards all who did not 
practice like themselves. In 1840, Dr. Maclay of New 
York visited Ireland, spent some time in Tubbermore, 
admired the harmony, doctrinal soundness, and efficien- 
cy of the church, and was deeply grieved that minute 



\fOIR OF DR. CAftgOX. 05 

points of difference should continue to separate breth- 
ren, who ought to be uniting- their energies for the ad- 
vancement of Zion. On passing to London, he repre- 
sented the state of the Tubbermore church to some of 
the ministers there, informed them of the great liberali- 
ty of Mr. Carson's disposition, and advised them to seek 
a plan of mutual co-operation with him. This opened 
the way for his introduction to the English churches. 

For several years, a missionary society, sustained and 
managed by the Baptists in England, had been labor- 
ing to evangelize the dark portions of Ireland. Schools 
were established, bible-re aders employed, and ministers 
sent forth to itinerate among the destitute population. 
At length it was determined that a change in the mode 
of the society's operations would be expedient. Many 
believed that some of the places, on which large sums 
had been expended, were so completely immersed in 
Popish darkness, and, withal, so unimportant as cen- 
tres of influence, as not to present the best points for 
missionary effort. The conclusion, therefore, was, to 
occupy in future, as far as possible, the more command- 
ing positions in that country, and from these to extend 
their colonies by degrees into other and darker sections. 
From this time, the attention of the society was direct- 
ed to the north of Ireland, which had been hitherto 
overlooked; and the writer of this article, being a na- 
tive of that region, was the first missionary appointed 
to the field. The little churches previously existing 
there, seemed to the society to present favorable begin- 
nings for more extended labors ; while the only obsta- 
cle in the way of concert with them, arose from the little 
peculiarities of their church order. This the society, 
with a liberality much to be commended, removed, by 
allowing their missionaries to organize churches upon 
any plan which might ^ecm to them and their people 
most in harmony with Scripture, Thus all appearance 
of estrangement is vanishing among the Baptists of 
Ireland. The New Testament is universally taken by 
them as their only guide, and they endeavor scrupu- 
lously to follow its example*. They arc neither Scotch 
nor 'English Baptists distinctively, but catholic chris- 
tians, extending their fellowship to both. The result of 



«b MEMOIR OF DR. CARSON. 

union in this instance, has been truly an accomplish- 
ment of the dying prayer of Jesus, that his followers 
might be one, that the world might know that the Fa- 
ther had sent him. Interesting churches are now rising 
up throughout the northern counties. One was organ- 
ized at Bangor, near Belfast, by the writer, which con- 
tinues to prosper. Another has been gathered at Cole- 
raine, to which a son of Mr. Carson ministered,, until 
he was removed from opening usefulness by an early 
death. It is now under the care of a missionary. In 
both these places convenient houses of worship have 
been erected. The writings of Mr. Carson are every 
where preparing the way for much wider success than 
has yet been realized. A Presbyterian minister, and 
two or three students for the ministry, have forsaken 
the General Synod, and are now setting forth, not only 
the doctrines of Christ, but his ordinances, in their ori- 
ginal simplicity. Thus, by the labors of Mr. Carson, 
and the union effected between him and the English 
brethren, a wide and effectual door has been opened for 
the introduction of a pure Gospel into Ireland. 

In 1840 the degree of LL. D. was conferred on Mr. 
Carson by Bacon College, in the State of Kentucky. 
To an American college belongs the credit of having 
done justice to a man, who deserved the highest honors 
which literary institutions can bestow, but who was shut 
out from receiving the merited reward of his scholar- 
ship in his own country, by his faithful adherence to 
primitive example. 

During the last three years of his life, Mr. Carson 
was induced occasionally to visit England, and take 
part in the missionary meetings of London and Bristol. 
He appeared before the congregations of the British 
metropolis, not with studied and artificial eloquence, but 
in the most simple and natural manner, illustrating the 
word of God by plain allusions to the events of rural 
life ; yet enkindling the hearts of his hearers with his 
own holy devotedness, and stirring them up to greater 
zeal in the work of the Lord. 

The first edition of his unrivalled Treatise on Bap- 
tism having become exhausted, he was requested to en- 
large it, and prepare it anew for publication. The 






MEMOIR OF DR. CARSON. 97 

jlish Churches, with their accustomed liberality, de- 
termined to raise such a subscription list, as would com- 
pensate him for his arduous researches, and show their 
high estimate of his character and labors. Without 
any solicitation on his part, a numerous list of subscri- 
bers was immediately obtained in Great Britain and 
Ireland ; and the American Baptist Publication Society, 
in adopting and issuing the work in this country, re- 
solved to afford its author a share of the profits arising 
from his mental toils. 

From the midst of these delightful tokens of the es- 
teem of his brethren, he has been suddenly called to an 
Imperishable reward in heaven. His mission is accom- 
plished. His literary career has now terminated — but 
not before his great task was done. Death could not 
touch him, until he had put the finishing hand to this 
masterly production, in which his name and his memo- 
ry shall live through all future time. He who, like Dr. 
Carson, has vindicated and rendered prominent an ordi- 
nance of Jesus Christ, by disentangling it from the web 
of human sophistry and perversion, lias done better for 
the world, than if he had founded a kingdom ; and has 
reared for himself a monument move lasting than pil- 
of marble. 

The solemn and painful circumstances of his death, 
we shall lay before our readers, by presenting them 
with the following extracts from a letter written by a 
gentleman who was studying ™t** him. to Dr. Maclay 
of New York, 

"Dear Sir, 

Your letter of the 5th of July last to the late 
Dr. Carson lies before me. As his hand is cold in 
death, and his sons are greatly afflicted, it devolves on 
me to acknowledge your favor. 

Knowing that you, and many others of our American 
brethren, will be anxious to learn when and how he 
died, I shall endeavor to furnish you with a true, though 
brief account. 

He went over to England in July, to advocate the 
cause of the Baptist missionary society. For this pur- 
pose, he travelled through many parts of England, and, 
I believe, most of Wales. When on his return, about 
9 



98 MEMOIR OF DR. CARSON. 

the end of August, he was waiting in Liverpool for the 
sailing of the Belfast steamer. It was night fall ; and 
in taking out his watch to ascertain the hour, he ap- 
proached unawares to the edge of the dock, and was 
immediately precipitated into the water, where it was 
twenty-five feet deep. Providentially, there were per- 
sons near at the time, who, with the aid of a ladder, 
succeeded in rescuing him from a watery grave. His 
shoulder having been dislocated by the fall, he had it 
set, and was conveyed on board the steamer. During 
the passage he became dangerously ill ; and though, on 
his arrival at Belfast, he had the aid of the physicians 
there, together with that of his son and son-in-law, 
Doctors Carson and Clarke of Coleraine, it was all in. 
vain ; he must go to his res£, and receive what he often 
termed the reward of grace. On Saturday morning, 
August 24th, 1844, he departed in peace, aged 68. 

His remains were taken for interment to his resi- 
dence at Tubbermore. Oh, what tears were shed, and 
what voices of lamentation were heard, over the dear 
departed warrior ! Never was there such an exhibition 
of sorrow in this country before. It would have pierced 
the soul of any one, to have beheld the anguish of the 
old veterans who had stood by him for the last forty- 
five years. They looked for their captain, but he was 
gone ! they sought their general but he was no more ! 
Having supplied his pulpit, most of the time during his 
absence, it became my painful duty to do so on the first 
Lord's Day after his departure from our world. But 
such a house of weeping hearers I never saw before, 
and hope I never may again. 

You may be able, in some measure, to calculate the 
loss which the churches of Christ have sustained, when 
I tell you of what he intended to accomplish. After the 
death of his beloved and excellent wife, he told me that 
he never intended to take another holiday in this world. 
a I will," said he, "leave them all for heaven." At smo- 
ther time, he said, "My head is full of books ; I will 
write on till I empty myself." One of the first which 
he intended to have given us, was a Treatise on the 
Atonement. Would that he had been spared to exe- 
cute it. But God's purposes must be fulfilled. The 



MEMOIR OF DR. CARSON. l h) 

< of all the Presbytepiians of this country, with a 
part of the Scotch church, as well many as of other de- 
nominations, were en him for some time, expecting this 
work. At length he consented to satisfy their wishes. 
He had the subject thoroughly studied — the plan form- 
ed — authors read — notes taken — and the book itself all 
but written. When lo! he was not, for God took him. 
He intended also to write a book, on the best mode of 
teaching the churches. He thought that ministers in gen- 
eral were lamentably deficient in this matter. When 1 
think of all he designed to do. and which he could do 
so well, I am almost overwhelmed with sorrow. You 
will be glad to learn that he has left a good deal be- 
hind him yet unpublished. He had just completed a 
work on " The characteristic style of Scripture" — showing 
its purity, simplicity, and sublimity, and contrasting 
the God of the Bible, as therein displayed, with the gods 
of the Heathen, as described by their poets. He has 
also left commentaries on the Epistles to the Galatians, 
and to the Hebrews, with many smaller articles. 

How irreparable is his loss ! How successful and 
brilliant has been his course ! What labors has he un- 
dergone, what results has he achieved., what privations 
and sacrifices has he endured ! How like was he to 
the apostles and primitive disciples ! He preached the 
Gospel, through good report, and evil report. Nothing 
could cool his zeal Onward ! was ever his motto. 
When Christ was to be served, his laws obeyed, or his 
truth defended, no force of opposition could discourage 
or intimidate him. Many an Alps has he crossed. His 
arm was mighty when fighting the battles of the Faith. 

" He was a warrior in the Christian field, 
Who never saw the sword he could not wield." 

What shall I say of his assiduity? For the last fifty 
years or more, he was never known to be idle one 
day. He labored hard for knowledge. What shall I 
say of him as a scholar and a critic? Viewed in this 
light, he was far above either praise or censure. The 
grand peculiarity of his mind was critical acumen. He 
always saw to the bottom of any subject which he un- 
dertook to handle. The foundation^ of his reasonings 

LofC. 



100 MEMOIR OF DR. CARSON. 

were laid, either in self-evident truths, or In explicit 
statements from the Holy Scriptures ; while his honesty 
of heart would not allow him to deviate a single iota 
from truth, to accomplish any sectarian object. What 
shall I say of him as a Christian ? Only this, that with 
all his classical, philological, and philosophical acquire- 
ments, he had especially learned the humility of his 
lowly Master. With the colossal stature of a giant, 
he possessed the meekness and simplicity of a child. 
May we all in this respect imitate his example. What 
shall I say of him as a theologian and a minister ? 
Nothing. Let his works and his church speak for him. 
Might I not safely challenge the world to produce such 
a church ? In knowledge and understanding of the 
Scriptures, its members could teach many a minister. 
And is it possible that such a man can ever be forgot- 
ten? Never, till the last trumpet sounds. He himself 
once said of Luther, "It requires an age to produce 
a great man insome departments." But a Carson is not 
to be found once in a millenary. Who is so blind as 
not to see that God made him expressly for his work? 
Had not the fire of God kindled his soul, would cour- 
age so romantic, have led him to attack the hosts of 
the "Man of sin," in their strongest entrenchment? 
His faith was bold as that of Jonathan, when, with his 
armour-bearer alone, he assailed the thronged ranks of 
the Philistines. Of him may be said that which was 
once said of Robert Hall : — "He is gone, and has left 
the world without one like him." 

Yours truly, 

G. C. MOORE, 
Tubbermorc, Sept. 27, 1844. 

How mysterious are the ways of Divine Providence ! 
It might naturally have been expected that this eminent 
servant of God, whose habits were so retiring, that he 
scarcely ever passed beyond the bounds of his own 
flock, except at the imperative call of duty, would have 
been permitted to breathe his last amid the quiet 
scenes which he so fondly loved, and which had wit- 
nessed his sacrifices and his toils. And yet, in a jour- 
ney undertaken to promote the Redeemer's triumphs, 



KiEMOHfcS OP DR. CAfcSoN. 101 

and while far away from the spot in which were con- 
centrated all the objects of his earthly affection — he i 
summoned suddenly away, and borne, as in a chariot 
of fire, to glory. But the Christian is prepared for all 
events* At home or abroad, in safety or in peril, he is 
alike enfolded by the arms of a faithful God. Car- 
son dies in peace. How could it be otherwise? He 
had eminently served his generation, and made it his 
highest joy to do the will of his Heavenly Father. For 
Christ's sake, lie had suffered the loss of all things. His 
Lord declares it is enough — and the messenger comes 
quick from the celestial realm, to bear him to that 
bright World, where he shall rest from his labors, and 
wear forever the erowft of those "who turn many to 
righteousness.-" Well may it be the ambition of every 
Christian minister to die, like him, on the field of battle, 
flushed with conquest, girded with heavenly armor, 
weilding the sword of the Spirit, and leaving it record- 
ed over his grave, that his last work on earth was 
preaching the Gospel of the kingdom to perishing men. 

The writings of Dr. Carson are many, though not 
voluminous* It may be sufficient for us to commend to 
particular attention his "Principles of Biblical Interpreta- 
tion ;" his work on "Divine Providence ;" his "Knowledge 
of Jesus the most excellent of thi Sciences y" and the ac- 
companying work on "Baptism" These are not local 
or ephemeral productions ; but are calculated for any 
latitude, and destined to live throughout all time. 

He was peculiarly happy in his family. His wife 
was truly a companion and helper, cheering him on in 
his toils, sustaining him in his trials, and taking upqn 
herself the entire management of his domestic 'con- 
cerns. She was also useful to him in his studies, by 
finding the quotations he required, and reading them 
while he wrote. She has gone to the world of spirits a 
little before him. He was exceedingly careful to train 
up his children in the nurture and admonition of the 
Lord. He conducted their education himself, and ex- 
perienced, in their subs<jqucnt character, the literal ful- 
filment of the divine promise, that those who have been 
early instructed in the fear of God, will not, in after 

9* 



102 MEMOIR OF DH. CARSON, 

years, depart from it. His was a happiness that falls 
to the lot of few parents. He lived to see all his chil- 
dren, thirteen in number, converted to God, and openly 
professing their faith in Christ, by following him into 
the baptismal grave. He was also called to experience 
the sorrows of a father, and the joys of a Christian, in 
the happy death of some of them. His son, Dr. Carson 
of Coleraine, died of brain fever, just as he was about 
to be ordained to the pastoral office, and only two 
weeks after he had written a memoir of his two sisters, 
who were removed within a short time of each other, 
by consumption. They departed in the triumphs of 
faith. One of them, when expiring, said, "Father, 
grieve not for me. I am only going before." It was 
even so ! Father, mother, son, daughters, have now 
united their hallelujahs before the throne of God and 
the Lamb. For such mercy bestowed upon fallen hu* 
inanity, let God have all the praise. 






A DISCOURSE ON BIBLE ELECTION. 



B V J II X YOUNG. 



It is admitted on all hands, that the study of the sa- 
cred writings, is of immense importance in the promo- 
tion of religion and virtue. But many well disposed 
persons, fail to derive from the scriptures, the benefit 
Which they seek, although they read them, with com- 
mendable care and diligence. This cannot arise from 
any real defect in the word of God, for God has spoken 
in order to be understood ; and must be supposed capa- 
ble of wielding all the powers of conviction and persua- 
sion, in a more eminent degree than any of his crea- 
tures. It obviously arises, from Bible readers being too 
often under the influence of a pre-conceived system, 
unfavorable to the reception of truth in its native sim- 
plicity ; and from their not understanding those com- 
mon principles of interpretation, which must be applied 
to the Bible and all other books, before we can derive 
instruction from them. 

The Bible is not as some seem to suppose, a disjoint- 
ed mass of truth, thrown together without order, and 
requiring the plastic hand of man to form it into a sys- 
tem, and make it fit for public ine. It is a most orderly 
production, pursuing not the course of a set of dry 
scholastic propositions, but of a regular history of God's 
greatest work — the redemption of man. Thus it open? 
with creation, and carries the reader along the world's 
history, till a peculiar people rise up, who become the 
only depositories of revealed wisdom. In tracing down 
their history, we are made progressively better acquaint- 
ed with the divine character, and with the great princi- 
ples that lie at the basis of human well-being. The 
prophecies of the Old Testament, prepare us for the 
grandest event of all — the advent of the xMcssiah in 
our world. And when we open the New Testament, 
our attention is exclusively directed to the history of 
this glorious personage. By the help of the four evan» 
Relists, we trace him from the cradle to the grave. 



104 BrBLE ELECTION. 

Luke sketches the rise and progress of the kingdom* 
which he founded in his blood. The letters of the 
Apostles develope such practical instruction, and theo- 
retic views, as were necessary to make both individuals, 
mid churches, acquainted with their duties. Then John, 
the Revelator opens futurity, describes the growth of 
the Mohammedan delusion, unfolds the growth, comple- 
tion and destruction of the Romish aposfcacy, awes us 
into reverence by his sublime description of the final 
judgment, and lets the curtain fall upon the closing 
scene of the Messiah's toils— when the redeemed of 
the Lord are gathered home to glory, and the wicked 
and unbelieving, cast out from the presence of the 
eternal Father. 

From these facts, we learn that the true way to study 
the Bible, must be to trace all doctrines, or institutions, 
from their first promulgation downwards, as far as the 
sacred writers will carry us. Let us in every instance 
go up if possible, to the fountain head — the place from 
whence the stream takes its rise, and watch its gradual 
expansion, by the addition of a thousand rivulets along 
its way„ until at last, it pours itself into the ocean of 
eternity. But if neglecting this most reasonable prin- 
ciple, we begin near the end of the sacred books, and 
try to urge our way backward, it is obovious that our 
minds will always be in confusion and our attempts as 
laborious and unsatisfactory, as those who row their 
barks against the rapid current of a descending river. 
Or if we break in about the middle of the volume, and 
construct our theory in disregard of all that has been 
previously developed, we must of necessity feel our- 
Helves incompetent to the solution, of many a mystery, 
which an acquaintance with what God had previously 
done, would have rendered easy of comprehension. 
The authors of the Calvinistic theory of election, un- 
doubtedly fell into mistakes, by neglecting this whole- 
some principle, and thereby entailed upon their follow- 
ers and admirers, the super-human labor of reconciling 
contradictions, and rendering palatable principles, 
which the moral scn^e of man bids him to reject. Lu- 
ther and Calvin had hardly issued from the smoke of 
mystical Babylon, when they began to busy themselves 






BIBLE ELECTION. 105 

with eagerness, in the exposition of Paul's letters to 
the Romans and Galatians : and from want of a full 
acquaintance with Jewish phraseology, and the Jewish 
errors which Paul was laboring to remove, they involv- 
ed themselves and their successors, in a darkness that 
may be felt. Has Clod from all eternity elected apart 
of the human family to everlasting life, and foreordain 
ed the rest to dishonor and wrath not from any thing 
foreseen in us ? If so, why does lie extend the invita- 
tions of the Gospel to all, and declare that he willeth 
not the death of the sinner, but would rather see him 
turn and live? Does God invite men to turn and live 
when he knows that they have no natural or moral 
ability to turn? If God passed multitudes by and fore- 
ordained them to dishonor and wrath, why shall he pun- 
ish them for rejecting a salvation which was never in- 
tended for their benefit? Ah! here indeed the labors 
of Hercules are renewed, and many a talented Divine, 
has wasted his time, and prostituted his genius in the 
fruitless attempt to unravel this web-work of Theolo- 
gical difficulty. Exhausted he has sunk into the grave, 
leaving the gordian knot still tied, and committing the 
unfinished work to the hands of some other brave man, 
who has resolve:! never to rest until he has extracted 
sense from nonsense, and brought light out uf darkness. 
Now I am bold to affirm, that a competent acquaint- 
ance with Old Testament history, would have rendered 
most of these labors unnecessary, smoothed the appa- 
rently rugged path of Biblical science, and brought the 
lovers of Christian truth to the end of their journey. 
not only with ease, but with positive pleasure. 

There is another important principle of interpreta- 
tion, which I am anxious to make familiar to my read- 
ers, as its practical use will frequently appear in the 
course of the reasoning that may follow. 1 mean that 
language itself changes, with the progress of human 
society. All ancient languages .have had their youth, 
their maturity, and their old age ; and all the tongues 
at present in existence are in some period or other, of 
a similar progression. Sometimes languages change 
by phrases becoming obsolete ; while new ideas and 
inventions call into existence new forms of speech, to 



106 BIBLE ELECTION. 

meet the increasing wants of men. Thus the term 
seer soon became old in Israel, while the word prophet, 
assumed its place, and exercised its prerogatives. But 
far more frequently an old word remains in use, but 
accommodates itself to new circumstances, by an in- 
crease or diminution of signification, according to the 
changes of things, the correction of former errors, or 
the increase of knowledge. The incessant heavings Gf 
old ocean's bosom, is hardly a stronger instance of 
changeability; than the winged words of a living lan- 
guage. Hence our Tyro critics, who gain their knowl- 
edge of a language from the stereotyped definitions of 
a dictionary, are often at fault in attempting to affix 
one single meaning, to a word, which may have lasted 
for thousands of years, and been changed itself by the 
wear of time, having been compelled to pass through 
various stages of progression. 

Abundant examples of error arising from inattention 
to this principle, are apparent in the very precise and 
metaphysical definitions, of the Westminster Assem- 
blies' shorter Chatechism. These worthy Divines ini- 
tiate the youth into a knowledge of the ten command- 
ments, but they never deign to inform them whether 
these laws formed part of the Jewish or Christian sys- 
tem, or whether the moral principles of Christianity, 
are more extensive than those of Judaism, or otherwise. 
The passing away of the old Constitution, and the in- 
troduction of the new, together with the further exten- 
sion of moral precepts, as suitable to a better covenant, 
are matters which were either beneath their notice, or 
beyond the circle of their knowledge. 

In that Catechism the words adoption, sanctification, 
election, and redemption, are defined with as much pre- 
cision, as if from the days of Moses down to John the 
Revclator, they had stood still the same, unchanged 
amid the wreck of a falling system, and the after- 
growth of a better kingdom, established upon better 
promises. 

The Geologist who has full and satisfactory proof of 
the existence of an universal deluge, would act most 
reprehensibly, if he neglected in the formation of his 
theory, to inake allowances for the changes produced 



BlflLE ELECTION. 10"? 

by BUch an awful catastrophe, and the neglect of & 
fact so important in the history of the world, would ren- 
der all his conclusions, unsound and deceptive. But 
equally reprehensible must he the conduct of the Theo- 
logian, who runs at random from the New Testament 
to the Old, in search of proof texts, and who seizes 
every verse in proof of his theory, that happens to con- 
tain the word in question without making any allow- 
ance for the difference between the phraseology of the 
Jewish system, and the more glorious kingdom to which 
all the prophets looked forward. In fact nine-tenths of 
the error which has brooded over Christendom for ages, 
has arisen from this most culpable neglect. 

What is Romanism, and whence came it ? Surely it 
is not entirely of human manufacture. No \ It is a 
compound of Judaism and Christianity, jumbled togeth- 
er according to the fancy of the Priesthood, — a divided 
service rendered to both Moses and Christ. Whence 
come the jarrings among Protestants, but from disor- 
derly methods of interpretation ? — -from attempts to 
confound the developments of the Old Testament, with 
those of the New — a patting of new cloth on an old 
garment, and of new wine into old bottles — making 
worse the rent, and spilling the fruit of the vine ! 

PATRIARCHAL ELECTION. 

From the very beginning of the world, we find the 
Almighty Father adopting different methods of treating 
his creatures, according to their characters, and the pro- 
priety of the case. In Eden, he condescends to com- 
mune with man in a state of innocence, but drives him 
from his presence when he has become a guilty and re- 
bellious creature. The offering of Abel he accepts, 
but that of Cain is rejected, and the propriety of the 
Divine decision, appears from the character of Cain, 
and the fearful crime of which .he speedily becomes 
guilty. Enoch he transfers to Heaven without the pangs 
of death, a transaction intended undoubtedly to pro- 
claim to the world a future state of existence ; but 
Enoch is selected to that high honor, to show God's ap- 
probation of his piety and faithfulness. 



108 BIBLK ELECtIOa, 

The iahabitants of the world become exceedingly 
wicked, and God overwhelms them in a flood of waters; 
but Noah being found just and perfect in his genera- 
tion, is saved through the mercy of God, by means of 
his careful obedience to the Divine injunctions. Sodom 
and Gomorrah are destroyed by fire, on account of 
their surpassing wickedness, but the destroying ele- 
ments cannot be let loose, until righteous Lot and his 
family are led to a place of safety. These few brief 
notices, carry us over near two thousand years of hu- 
man history, and impress us deeply with the impartiali- 
ty of God, and his determination to approve what is 
excellent without respect of persons. If there be any 
election in these instances, it is certainly not a choice 
resting upon the sole purpose of God, without regard to 
any thing in men; but rather the holy decisions of a 
great moral governor, who rewards virtue, and punish- 
es vice. 

Our attention at this period of our enquiries, is ne- 
cessarily attracted to Abraham, as enjoying in a high 
degree, the favor of Heaven. God has called him to 
leave his country and kindred, in order that he and hiss 
descendants may be freed from the then prevalent idola- 
try, and. a better country is promised him, as encourage- 
ment to his obedience. If we had any doubt as to 
Abraham's being a proper person to enjoy such distin- 
guished favor, it is removed by Paul's classing him with 
Enoch and Noah, assuring us that faith prompted him 
to make willing sacrifices, in obedience to the Divine 
Father. Anon we find Abraham receiving assurance 
from God, that he will be the father of a great nation, 
and that all the nations of the earth shall be blessed in 
his seed. But lest we should for a moment suppose, 
that the great Ruler of the World is here acting capri- 
ciously, w r e are assured that he is thus exalted, because 
God knows that he will command his descendants, to 
keep the way of the Lord, and to do justice and judg- 
ment. He thus receives these promises, partly as a re- 
ward for his previous faithfulness, and partly because 
his character would have a hallowed influence on his 
posterity. 



BIBLE ELECTION. 109 

JEWISH ELECTION. 

About tliis time the inhabitants of the-world, who hart 
lived hitherto in deta shed families, became consolidated 
into nations, distinguished by differences of language, 
customs and government; and as these nations had 
almost with one accord cast aside all knowledge of the 
true God, and established rig themselves variori 

systems of superstition, it d proper that Jehovah 

should preserve a pure form of worship, among at least 
one people, -that all communication between earth and 
Heaven might not be cut o{\\ and the whole world con- 
signed to darkness and v\C:\\, and especially that prepa- 
ration might be made, for the already promised Messi- 
ah. 

To accomplish these high objects, and others that \vr 
need not here attempt to spe dfy, it was necessary for 
God to select some particular nation, and to set them 
before the rest of the world as his public servants — th<? 
keepers of his sacred oracles, and the living witnesses 
of his power. The descendants of Abraham were se- 
lected to fill this office, not so much for their own sake, 
as on account of the eminent piety of their common 
ancestor, Abraham; and if we do not find them acting 
*n all things worthy of their high calling, we are to 
bear in mind that no other people could have been 
found any more worthy of the: e national honors than 
themselves. We are inclined sometimes to stumble at 
the arrangements of Divine Providence, by which some 
families arc destined from the! birth to enjoy wealth, 
receive a good education, and fe< 1 the happy influence 
of proper paternal example: while the heir loom of oth- 
ers is disgrace, poverty and e\ hallowed influence. 
Now, there is nothing objectionable in this, inasmuch 
as it is evidently inherent in the constitution of human 
Hocicty; and to obviate it, would entail worse evils of a 
different kind. As long as there , main links of con- 
nexion between parent and chil 1. brother and sister, 
nation and nation, so long mus1 we be liable on the 
one hand to suffer injuries, and on the other, to re- 
ceive benefits from those with wh< m we are thus united. 
Partners in business, have the * ii\ antage of a larger 
10 



Ho 



BIBLE ELECTrOE*. 



capital than either of them could furnish separately' 
hut they incur of necessity, the risk of liability for each 
others contracts. The conduct of one may destroy 
the well being of both. Keep them separate and this 
evil is not entailed. Nations that are closely inter- 
twined by ties of commerce, are mutually affected by 
every crisis that may arise in either; but let their com- 
merce be destroyed, and each stands alone, unaided 
and unscathed. 

Did we wish to be delivered from all chance of being 
injured by the conduct of others, this could only be ef- 
fected by breaking up all social bonds, and putting an 
end forever to the possibility of our enjoying benefit? 
Iron our fellow mortals. Now, are any so discontent- 
ed with the present arrangements ot Divine Providence, 
that in order to avoid the possible entail of evils, they 
would give up the good, and breaking off all ties that 
bind them to their fellow men, would stand isolated and 
alone — strangers in the midst of a busy universe. Do 
we inherit a fallen nature through Adam? Yet through 
him we have received life, composed of bodily 
and mental powers, with all the enjoyments of a living 
world. Would we rather that the lamp of life had nev- 
er been lighted, than have it burn amid a fallen race ? 
Oh, no! We cling to life with all its disadvantages. 
jWe are also to bear in mind as a full answer to this 
difficulty, that our education, privileges, and national 
and family influences, will be taken into account in set- 
tling the me a are of our responsibility. Those to whom 
God has given much, of them much shall be required. 
Complain not, ye Gentiles, at the national exaltation 
of the Hebrews, for God will never call you to account 
for their advantages. In your souls God has kindled a 
spark of his wisdom, by the use of which you can con- 
demn the wrong and approve the right; for your use 
he has reflected his own power and Godhead over the 
face of all creation — for these, and these alone, you 
atand responsible. Pride not yourself, O Jew ! that 
you are exalted above all nations; for if you dishonor 
and disobey that glorious constitution, so freely bestow- 
ed on you, your fall and national degradation, shall be- 
come a fearful warning to all the earth, and through- 



Bible election. 



hi 



out all coming time. While personally your misuse o** 
Jewish privileges, will sink you to the lowest regions o j 
darkness and despair. 

The difficulty, then, of justifying the ways of God 
has vanished, and we have only to address ourselves to 
the fact of Jewish election. 

God called Abraham, not to make him a pious man, 
for he was such before, but to come out of Urr into Ca- 
naan; and his faith and reverence for God, induced him 
to obey the call. God chose Abraham, not to be an 
heir of Heaven, for thousands of his cotemporaries pro- 
bably attained without a miraculous call, to that glori- 
ous world. But God chose him to be the father of a 
most peculiar nation, and made a covenant with him, 
pledging the accomplishment of this object. Again; 
God selected Isaac and rejected Ishmael, not thereby 
deciding the eternal destiny of either, but simply their 
national position. For when Abraham prays for Ish- 
mael, God answers his supplication by assuring him, 
that even of Ishmael he will make a great nation; but 
not the nation of promise. Both God and Abraham 
then understood the matter as affecting their position 
in this world, arid not in eternity. 

In the line of Isaac God chose Jacob and rejected 
Esau. In this transaction, Esau forfeits that which he 
but little values — viz: his birth-right — and Jacob ob- 
tains the legitimate object of his purchase. Theologi- 
ans reckon without their book, when from this transac- 
tion they attempt to settle the eternal destiny of either. 
God loved Jacob, and hated Esau, so far as to cause the 
elder to serve the younger. And even the approbation 
or disapprobation of Jehovah thus far, did not rest 011 
them merely in their individual character: for Esau 
never personally served Jacob; but Esau's descendants 
submitted under the power of the Hebrews. God him- 
self expounds the matter, not in a personal sense, but 
with reference to national standing. ''Two nations are 
in thy womb, and two manner of people shall be sepa- 
rated from thy bowels; and the one people shall be 
stronger than the other people, a d the elder shall serve 
the younger." — Gen. 25: 23. Surely there is no neces- 
sity laid upon us by those pa vu£?" ! ., to conclude that 



B 



312 BIBLE ELECTION 

God had determined inexorably to send Esau to de- 
struction, though he sought a place for repentance care- 
fully with tears. He had sold his inheritance, and no 
repentance could bring it back; but assuredly if he 
turns from wickedness, and does that which is lawful 
and right, he will surely live. So testifies the word of 
God. And though Jacob gained the national honor, 
yet if not repented of, he must at God's eternal bar, 
make answer for the falsehood with which he deceived 
his aged parent. Come we down now to the descend- 
ants of these Patriarchs, and we find God addressing 
the whole nation of Israel by the most endearing titles 
— -titles not descriptive in any way, either of their per- 
sonal character or eternal destiny; but simply of the 
high national position which they occupied. 

Hcsea in his 11th chapter and 12th verse, reports 
God as saying of the Jews, "When Israel was a child, 
then I loved him, and called my Son out of Egypt." 
Isaiah in his 48th chapter and 12th verse, terms them 
the called of God. How did God call them? Surely 
not by converting them spiritually, and making them 
good men ! Nay, but he sent Moses from the wilder- 
ness, to bring them out of Egyptian bondage, and 
guide their steps to Canaan. Solomon says he is in 
the midst of a great people, whom God had chosen — 
see 1st Kings, 3: 8. David pictures their eminent posi- 
tion in the following glowing language: "O ye seed of 
Israel, ye children of Jacob, his chosen ones." We 
have seen from the preceding passages, that the nation 
of Israel were both the called and chosen of God; but 
they are also the elect; for the Prophet Isamfa, speaking 
speaking in the name of the Lord, says, (48: 4,) 
"For Jacob my servants sake, and Israel mine elect, I 
have called thee by thy name." That the term elect 
here, is applied to the nation of Israel, and not to par- 
ticular individuals, is certain from the fact that this en- 
dearing relationship to God, is assigned as a reason 
why Jehovah raised up Cyrus to deliver the Jews from 
Babylon. 

We are thus irresistably led to the conclusion, that 
God throughout the Old Testament calls the Hebrew 
nation his sons, his called, his chosen, and his elect; 



OIBLE ELECT! >N. 113 

and that these terms are applied to the nation as a 
whole, embracing as it always did, all kinds of charac- 
ter. 

From the fact thus proved, that Cod terms the Jewish 
nation his called, his cJioscn, and his elect, only two con- 
clusions can arise — 

1st. If they were called and elected to eternal life, 
then of necessity they were all eternally saved; or 

2<jh If J&ot to eternal Jjjfe, then their election must on- 
ly have secured to riiem earthly .advantages. 

Now, 1st. "That the calling, choosing, and electing, of 
riie Jewish nation could not have secure^ the eternal 
salvation of all, is manifest from Jbkeir history. But a 
i e v clays elapsed after the grand display of Sinai*-' 
brightness, until they are found dancing in wild confu- 
sion around an idol calf, and the sword of .the Lord is 
Jet loose among them, to the destruction of thousands. 
Again they provoke Jehovah by lusting after flesh, and 
in their hearts turn back to Egypt. A whole company 
of them turn out rebels against constituted authority, 
and are engulphed in an earthquarke. Shall we sup- 
pose with the Universalists, that God swept these 
people away in his anger only to take them the more 
speedily home to glory? Or is it not rather, obvious, 
that though they belonged to the triect on earth, yet 
they were never pious nor approved of as to character. 
by the Lord Almighty. What mean those kind expos- 
tulations of God with the nation of Israel, but that 
their character was not found suitable to the high ex- 
saltation to which til'" Lord had called them? God is 
their Father, but they fyave forgotten him; he is their 
Master,. but unlike the Ox or Ass they have rebelled 
against turn, lie stretches out his hands ajl day long 
to a rebellious and gain-saying people. In the days of 
Elijah only seven thousand men are found in Israel, 
who have not bowed the knee. Jo Baal. So gross 
and unbearable became their corruption, that they 
were driven by Divine Providence into Babylonish cap- 
tivity. Yet they were even then the chosen nation, 
and for their sakes, as the elect of God, Jehovah com- 
missions Cyrus to permit thqir return to their own land, 
lifter they are cured of their strong tendencies to idola- 
try, lp* 

/ 



114 BIBLE ELECTION. 

After this their national election continued for cen- 
turies, until the coming and death of their promised 
Messiah. Jeremiah foretold the removal of their na- 
tional privileges, because they had broken God's cove- 
nant, and he regarded them not. John the Baptist was 
sent when the time was fulfilled, to inform them of the 
rise of a better kingdom, and warn them that the axe, 
even then, lay at the root of the tree; while Jesus him ? 
self declares to them, that their rejection of him, woul/J 
leave their house desolate, and cause the kingdom of 
ijod, or their religious privileges, to be taken from them 
and given to nations bringing forth the fruits thereof. 
Now Paul assures us, that in his day, these threats had 
been executed, an I that the Jews were then cut off 
from their connexion with God, and that the Gentile 
nations, had been "grafted" into the good olive tree, 
/md were in the full enjoyment of all the blessings of 
an election of grace, derived from the Messiah as the 
true vine, to prepare the way for whose coming the 
Jewish election was at first instituted, and on whom the 
Christian election was built. We ought also to notice 
that their election and the bestowment of a constitu- 
tion upon them, had mutual reference to each other, 
although separated by an interval of four hundred and 
thirty years. 

When God chose the descendants of Abraham .ac- 
cording to the flesh, it was that he might bestow upon 
them a system of I&vvs, superior to any thing then 
known in other nations, And when he afterward 
brought them out of Egypt with an high hand, and gave 
ftyem hl> stain! °s And judgments, it was a full carrying 
out of the literal part of the promises he had made to 
Abraham. Their constitutional polity as a nation, was 
founded upon theiv election;— and their election again 
formed their title to Jewish privileges. Of this election, 
eircumcisJon was the sign, and so remained from the 
day of .God's choosing Abraham, and appointing the 
rite, untii ihe death of Jesus, yyheii the nation fell from 
its high pomtiOjU— the law was changed; — the new .con- 
stitution arose, and circumcision was declared by .the 
Apostles at Jerusalem, to be no longer necessary. Eve- 
r\ circumcised Jew then, from the days of Abrahan^ 



BIBLE ELECTION. 115 

down to the death of the Messiah, was an elect person 
without reference to personal piety, or his eternal sal- 
vation. Now we are able posivelv to affirm, that there 
is no other election than this developed in the Old Tes- 
tament Scriptures, although their narratives and pro- 
phecies carry us down the world's history, for near four 
thousand years. 

CHRISTIAN, OR XEW TESTAMENT ELECTION. 

In passing from the study of the Old Testament to 
the New, we must remember a principle of interpreta- 
tion, that we illustrated at the outset, viz: That words 
change their signification and enlarge or contract their 
meaning; with the change of the affairs to which they 
relate. 

The term candlestick was no doujb.t at one time a 
correct description of the implement in use. It was 
a stick which held a candle, but the increasing wealth 
of the world soon led men to abandon the use of sticks, 
and substitute stems of silver, brass, or gold. Vet the 
name remained the same; it merely expanded its mean- 
ing, so as to include any material, or metal, of which 
the instrument for holding a candle may be composed. 
Precisely such has been the history of Hebrew phrase- 
ology. The terms, Priest, Altar, Sacrifice, Jiedemptioa. 
Calling. Electing and Saving, were first applied to in- 
stitutions or events, which were presenting themselves 
continually to the Hebrew people, and for which they 
needed names. Bat w'beii Judaism, with its offices, types, 
customs, and precepts, passed away — these names were 
still retained, and applied with an enlargement of 
meaning, to the mor ; e spiritual truths or appointments 
of the New Constitution. 

Thus we have in Christianity a gre^ Jljgh Priest in 
the Heavens, while all belieworS; are jPriests to God. 
We have an Altar from which they have no right to eat 
who serve the Tabernacle. The death of f jesus is a sa- 
crifice for us. We are redeemed, not from Egyptian 
bondage, but from error, sin, .and misery. Our calling 
is not by Moses coming authorized of God to bring ug 
out in spite of Pfyaroah; but by the Apostles comin.is 



116 BIBLE ELECTION. 

stoned to invite us to cone into the Kingdom ^f Christ, 
and our election will, by analogy, be our citizenship in 
the kingdom of Christ, or our being members of the 
Church of the living God. 

Now, as in order that the Jewish system might arise, 
Clod at first elected Abraham to be the father and stock 
from whence the whole system should proceed, and to 
him he gave the promises. So God elects Jesus of Na- 
zareth as the father of the everla ting age, the King 
an i the head of the new king lorn, and to him first the 
promises are given, in behalf of all believers. "Thus 
the prophet speaks of the Messiah as the elect of God. 
In whom his soul delighteth, and Paul tells us that when 
he ascended up on high, he received gifts for men, even 
for tlae rebellious. Now, if the Messiah is chosen to be 
the head, there must of necessity be a body, whic : k is 
under the guidance of his intelligence. If he be king, 
he will of course have citizens governed by his laws. 
And this uniting of a people with himself in a public 
body or church, will constitute a new or Christian elec- 
tion. Hcace Paul spoke of the Christian Church in his 
day, as "chosen with Christ before the foundation of 
the world." Again, the object had in view by their so- 
cial combination, and the religious induences under 
which they were placed, was that they might become 
holy, and without blame before the Lord in love. The 
jirst act of God toward raising up a Christian election 
in the room of Judaism is to qualify the Apostles, and 
send out through their mouth a call to all the world to 
.come into the kingdom of the Messiah. Christ pre- 
sents this matter to his followers, under the figure of a 
King making a marriage supper for his son. When the 
time arrives, he sends forth his servants to invite the 
Jews, who had previous notice of it by the prophets, 
and by John the Baptist; but they would not come; he 
then sends them into the Gentile nations and charges 
them to compel them by every persuasion within their 
power to come in, that the wedding might be furnished 
with guests. Paul in 1 Thcss. 2: 12, admonishes the 
members of that church, "t& s \vajk worthy of God who 
had called (or invited thenrby the Gospel) into his king- 
dom and glory," and that this cajling was in no secret 



BIBLE ELECTION. 11T 

or mysterious manner, but simply through the convin- 
cing and persuasive force of the Gospel, is evident from 
the following verse, in which lie tells them, that they 
had received the word of Clod, and it had worked ef- 
fectually in them. The members of the primitive 
churches were called persons by the gospel. See Paul 
igratulating the church at Rome -as persons '-called 
of Jesus Christ," or invited by Jesus into the kingdom. — 
Rom. 1: 6. The members too of the Corinthian church 
had been called to fellowship with Jesus Christ. See I 
Cor. 1: 9. The Ephesiaus w r ere called, and there was 
one hope in rheir calling; viz: the hope of eternal life, 
if they would continue faithful to the end. — Eph. 4: 4. 
The Colossians are called into a body or society, in 
order that the peace of God may rule" in their hearts. 
Paul in his 1st Letter to Timothy, 6: 12, exhorts him to 
light the good fight of faith, to lay hold on eternal life, 
whereunto ^ays he thou art called. Whereunto here 
undoubtedly expresses the final object which God has 
in view, in bringing men through the word into the 
church — viz: to prepare and lit them for eternal life. 
But this calling does not necessarily secure their eternal 
salvation, tor "many are called, but few are chosen," 
and the Galatians were called, but became very soon 
removed from Christ into another Gospel. — See Gal. 
1: G. 

W e are now prepared to approach the examination 
of the term election, or ele t, as used by the New Test- 
ament writers, and with a constant remembrance of 
the use made of this word under the Jewish system. 
Paul when writing to the members of the church at 
Thessalonica, declares that he knows their ejection of 
God. — See 1 Thess. 1: 4. Now, if the term election in 
this passage denote their being certain to obtain eternal 
life, it would be more than Paul, or any other man 
could say of the members of any religious society that 
has ever existed, .that they were elected in the sense of 
being sure of Heaven. In truth we cannot find a 
church in the world, of which this could be predicted of 
all its members. And that Paul regarded the final sal- 
vation of these same Thessalonians as not yet altogeth- 
er certain, we learn from the 1st The/ss. 3: 8. Now. 



II® 13IBLE ELECTION. 

says he, "we live, if ye stand fas in the Lord." They 
are elected — that he knows certainly, and they will be 
finally saved if they stand fast in the Lord. But how 
did Paul come to know the election of these Thessalo- 
nians? Had he penetrated the secret counsels of the 
Almighty? Had he read the names of the members of 
this congregation in the Lamb's book of life? Or was 
this a special case in which the election of these peo- 
ple had been made a matter of direct Revelation to 
Paul? Oh no! He claims no prescience in it, bespeaks 
of it as a matter well known, and admitted on all 
hands. What did Paul know? He knew that the Jews 
were excluded from the New Church on account of un- 
belief; and that these people as part of the Gentile 
world, had been invited in by the Gospel. He knew 
that they had obeyed the call — believed the Gospel — 
reformed their ways — male confession of their sins, 
and been baptized into the na ne of the Lord. He 
knew that their lives, in a reasonable degree, corres- 
ponded with their profession, and that they had not 
since their baptism been justly excluded from the body 
of Christ. Are we not warranted in saying, that on the 
bans of these facts, w&ll known to him and others, he 
predicates their election. Prove to me that any peo- 
ple formed legally a part of the Jewish nation, before 
the death of Christ, and then I know that they were 
elect of God, according to the 01 I Testament use of 
that word. Show me that any society were a Gospel 
church, walking in good order, according to the law of 
Christ; and I am warranted by this passage, in saying 
that I know their election of God; and this I do without 
at all attempting to draw aside the curtain that sepa- 
rates us from an eternal world, or to decide in any way 
upon their eternal destiny. 

That the Apostle John was accustomed to use the 
term elect in this way, is evident from is 2d Epistle, 
which he addresses to the elect lady. Had some spe- 
cial revelation marked out the name of this lady as des- 
tined certainly at last to enter Heaven? Oh no ! ! She 
formed one of the election, as being a member of the 
church of Christ; and she might be called elect here, 
in the sense of precious, valuable, of excellent charac- 



BIBLE ELECTION. 119 

ter; — lor ^o the word is sometimes applied in primitive 
times. 

It is now time for us to summon Peter to give testi- 
mony on this subject, that we may see whether his view? 
of election correspond with those of Paul and John, 
Peter in his 1st General Letter, addresses the Chris- 
tians scattered through Asia Minor, as elect persons, 
and in the 2d chapter, 9th xcv$e, he calls them a chos- 
en generation, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a pe- 
culiar people; phrases all of which are borrowed from 
Judaism, and intended to designate their elevation and 
privileges as church members. That he is not at- 
tempting by these terms to decide upon their eternal 
destiny, is clear from the 3d verse where he says, "if so 
be ye have tasted that the Lord is gracious" and in the 
4th chapter, 15th verse, he says, "let none of you suf- 
fer as a thief, or as a murderer, or evil doer." O Pe- 
ter! surely, if these were foreordained unchangeably 
to eternal life, they could be in no danger of being pun- 
ished as thieves, or murderers. But of church mem- 
bers it has happened, that some have come to this aw- 
ful end. Peter again applies the word election to the 
members of a Christian church in his 5th chapter, 13th 
verse: '-The church at Babylon elected together with 
you salute you." Here we must either conclude that 
all the members of the congregation at Babylon, and 
all the church members in Asia Minor, would be eter- 
nally saved; or else that Peter meant by their election, 
the high privilege of citizenship in the Christian king- 
dom. 

With the light that we have gained from the forego- 
ing examination, let us now briefly sketch the course of 
Paul's reasoning in the ninth and tenth chapters of the 
Romans. Paul is grieved about the Jews, because 
they once were the election of God, and to them by 
virtue of that election, pertained the adoption, the She- 
kinah or glory, the covenants, the giving of the law, 
the service of God, and the promises. These things 
they have lost; yet the promises have not failed, for a 
new and spiritual seed has arisen in their room. The 
election of them rather than any other nation was an 
act of divine sovereignty, and of grace entirely, so \v&* 



120 BIBLE ELECTION. 

the limitation of the promises to the seed of Jacob, and 
and the rejection of Esau from this honor, an act of 
sovereignty, decided upon in the Divine mind before 
they were born. Why may not God from the world 
take out one nation and surround it with religious in- 
fluences, calculated, if properly used, to raise it to a 
superior condition? The potter takes clay out of the 
game lump, to make one vessel superior, and another 
inferior. Bat when the potter puts clay on the w 7 heel 
it sometimes breaks in the forming, and he casts it 
aside, as only suited to some meaner purpose. 

Let us here open the book of Jeremiah at the 18th 
chapter, 4th verse, and learn the vision of the potter, as 
illustrative of the state of Israel. The potter put clay 
on the wheel, but it was marred in his hand, and he 
made it again into an inferior vessel. So, says thp 
word of the Lord, will I do with the house of Israel. 
God put them on the wheel, but they were marred in his 
hand; this we learn from chapter 31, verse 81. "They 
have broken God's covenant, therefore God will make 
a new covenant/' bring in the Gentiles, write his law 
in their minds, and make pf them a vessel of honor 
meet for the master's use. God makes known his wrath 
and justice in the punishment of the Jews, who had be- 
come, through their wickedness, vessels of wrath fitted 
to destruction, and he makes known the riches of his 
grace, in throwing Gospel and purifying influen- 
ces around the Gentiles to prepare them for glo- 
ry. But if the former election have lost their high po- 
sition by unbelief, and wickedness, so the second or 
New Testament election, who have now obtained the 
Divine favor, will loose it abo, if they do not continue 
humble and stand by faith; for God has no favorites, 
but will in justice cut off Christians also, if they be- 
come unfaithful. And even the Jews, whenever they 
repent and return to God, will be graded in again. 
Thus all the true Israel oi^ God, both Jews and Gentile*, 
who have lived in piety all their days, shall be finally 
and eternally saved. 



BIBLE ELECTION. 121 

ETERNAL ELECTION. 

We are now prepared to proceed to the last great 
periotl, of God's dealings with men. The church of God 
was first the Jewish nation, until the death of the Mes- 
siah. From that time, till the close of the world's his- 
tory, will baptized faithful believers constitute the 
kingdom of God. But the end will come. The affairs 
of the Christian church will close, and the church of 
the first born in Heaven will then appear gloriously, 
as Jerusalem shining in the light of Divine favor. 
The word church has then, by the change of circum- 
stances, advanced through three degrees — the Jewish 
nation — the Christian kingdom — the redeemed in Heav- 
en. At each of these steps, it has been losing some- 
thing of its earthly character, until at last it designates 
an assembly altogether spiritual, without spot, or w r rin- 
kle, or any such thing. Were it not that the Bible 
leads us by these progressive steps, from earth up to 
Heaven, it would be impossible for the human mind to 
conceive, or for human language to express, the things 
that are unseen and eternal. So the term salvation 
follows a similar progression. The Jewish nation were 
a people saved by the Lord, or redeemed out of Egypt. 
This redemption was to them only an emblem of, and 
a state preparative to, the enjoyment of an eternal 
rest; but it was Jewish salvation — it belonged to them 
nationally. "He that believeth and is baptized shall 
be saved/' This is evidently a higher kind of salva- 
tion than that of the Jewish nation, yet it is not the 
promise of eternal life, for only "he that endureth to the 
end shall be saved", but it simply pledges our present 
justification, sad ejoyment of the divine favor. We 
may term it Christian salvation. It is the privilege and 
birth-right of all good members of the church of Christ 
on ea~th. The pious and faithful of all ages, and from 
all constitutions, who shall be found worthy to stand 
before the Lamb, shall enjoy the eternal salvation. 
Their spirits shall be emancipated from Hades, their 
bodies redeemed from the grave, and they made per- 
fectly happy in the presence of the Divine Father. 
This is the final consummation of Divine workmanship 
11 



122 



BTBLi" ELECTION 



- — the great end toward which both Judaism and Chris.. 
tianity have been tending. Now, this three-fold ad 
. vancement in the use of Bible phrases, holds equally 
true of Election, as of Salvation. The Jewish nation 
were the first election. The Christian church forms the 
second election. While they who continue faithful un- 
to death, and are counted worthy of a better resurrec- 
tion, shall constitute the highest and final election. 

We shall here note some distinctions, obviously pre- 
senting themselves between these three elections. The 
first was based upon a qualification of flesh, as chil- 
dren of Abraham. The second upon the profession of 
faith in Jesus as the Lord Messiah; and the last elec- 
tion rests upon character. The first and second elec- 
tions were entirely of grace, neither Jews nor Gentiles 
having had previously in them, any thing to merit the 
Divine favor. But the last election will rest entirely 
upon the character formed by these previous institu- 
tions. Hence we conclude that the last election shall 
be made, by a careful investigation of the lives, circum- 
stances, and characters, of all the sons and daughters 
of Adam. And this is the very prospect, presented to- 
us in the sacred writings. The Lord will descend with 
his attending angels — the Heavens will be shaken, and 
the earth baptized in fire- — the sleeping dead shall rise 
to judgment — all kindreds, nations, and tongues shall 
stand before the Lamb. The antedeluvian world are 
there, to render an account of the knowledge, and warn- 
ings, they have enjoyed from their pious lathers. The 
Jews appear, with Moses in whom the} trusted, bearing* 
witness against them. Christians take their stand be- 
fore that bar, to answer to that holier and sublimerlaw, 
under which they have lived; while Pagan nations ran- 
ged around the throne, are held responsible for that 
voice of conscience, which, as the voice of God, has 
spoken within them. The mercy of God has been ful- 
ly e: d, through the Jewish and Christian systems. 
The love of God has for thousands of years been woo- 
ing men to life, and peace. Now righteousness, truth, 
and justice, are manifested, as the foundations of the 
Divine throne, and the immutable laws of the Universe. 
The Judge of all the earth shall now proceed to form a 



I 



BIBLE ELECTION. 123 

last election; for he shall separate men from each oth- 
er, as a shepherd divideth his sheep from the goats. 
This selection however, will not arise from bringing in- 
to view so ne eternal decrees, which had fixed their fate 
before they were born. k but every man shall be judged 
according to his works.' They that have done good, 
II rise to the resurrection of life — they that have 
.11 to the resurrection of condemnation. After 
the awful Hats of that solemn day, no man or angel 
will >n to accuse Jehovah of injustice; for "the 

Judge of all the earth will do right." To give us a full 
view of the present, and future arrrangements of 
Divine Providence, in reference to this great question 
of human responsibility, the Messiah presents us w^ith 
the parable of the tares of the field. The characters of 
both good and bad are at present manifest, to Heaven 
and earth; but the time for separation or final election, 
not come. When that great day on which the mor- 
al harvest of the whole earth is ripe shall arrive. God 
will send forth his Angels, and gather his elect, orfaith- 
ful and obedient servants, from among all the nations 
of the earth, that they may be happy for ever with the 
Lord. Peter, in his 2d Epistle, 1st chapter, 10th verse, 
the term elect in such a way as to slow that he 
has before his mind, this glorious consummation so de- 
itly to be wished. "Wherefore brethren give all dili- 
ice, to make your calling and election sure; for if 
ye do these things ye shall never fall." Here it is im- 
possible for him to mean an eternal election, by virtue 
of a de God before the world was, and (hat so 

ml definite that the numbers can neither be in- 
creased nor diminished, for in such an election as this, 
if the decree was for them, there could be no falling 
and no fa' lure; neither could there be any rendering of 
it more or less sure, by any thing wMch they could do. 
man elected according to the .theory of the Calvin- 
ist, can ever make his election more sure, than it was 
from all eternity, by any watchfulness of his. But 
; there is a present or Christian election of all the 
members of the church of Christ, and a future and 
eternal decision of their state, depending upon the 
characters they are forming here; then indeed by the 



124 



BIBLE ELECTION. 



use of diligence, by adding to their faith courage, know- 
ledge, temperance, and all other graces they will make 
their calling and election sure — it will be sure to result 
in the great object which God had in view, in bestow- 
ing upon them their privileges — their election then wili 
be confirmed, and pass into the eternal state, but if the 
present privileges are misused, and these virtues left 
uncultivated, the election will be disannulled, their 
names blotted out of the book of life, and their high 
advantages be a means of increasing their punish- 
ment. 

We have thus examined the principal passages iit 
which calling, choosing, and electing, are used by the 
inspired writers. We have tested these phrases by the 
laws of language, — we have interpreted them in ac- 
cordance with the circumstances under which they were 
used — we have called upon other expressions in tfee 
contexts to throw light and confirmation upon their 
meaning, and we have been brought to a conclusion 
very different indeed, from the harsh and God-dishon- 
oring dogma, that God fi;om all eternity elected 
some to everlasting life, and passed "by and foreordain- 
ed the rest to dishonor and wrath; not from any fore- 
sight of either faith or good works, but only for his own 
glory. There are some doctrines in the world which 
carry their own condemnation upon their front, which 
are so obviously at war with reason and justice, that it 
is as much as an intelligent man can do, notwithstand- 
ing all the force of authority with which they may be 
taught, to bring himself to believe them. This was the 
writer's case; he was brought up and educated in the 
doctrines of John Calvin, and for many a year he could 
not summon the courage to doubt, much less to deny, a 
system sustained by so many wise and great men. But 
he always found it difficult to gain his own consent to a 
cordial reception of it. Now, he would not assert that 
the mere repugnance of the human mind to a doctrine, 
is in all cases proof conclusive of its falsehood. But 
man was at first made in the likeness of God' and con- 
science and the sense of right still remain the sublime 
representatives of Divinity in human nature. It cannot 
be that God would impress a sense of right and wrong 



BIBLE ELECTION. 125 

upon the soul of man, and then give another Revela- 
tion, obviously at war with these nobler principles of 
human nature. Now if men are to be made happy or 
miserable throughout eternity, not on account of ehar- 
a iter, but because such was their foreordained destiny, 
we can only say of it, that the more our sense of justice 
and right is cultivated and improved,' the more nicely it 
can distinguish between right and wrong, the more de- 
cidedly will it pronounce its disapproval, uf such a view 
of the Divine Government. 

We can, not only thus test a doctrine by its accord- 
ance with the moral sense of man, but by its agreement 
o-: disagreement with other well established truths of 
Divine Revelation. Althoug inspired writers lived in 
ages long separated from each other, and under differ 
ent circumstances, yet there is a delightful harmony in 
the principles which they inculcate. There is and there 
can be no real discrepancy between the different doc- 
trines of Divine Revelation; there is a gradual unfold- 
ing of knowledge, but m contradiction in the Bible. 

1. That man is responsible for his actions, is a truth 
not. merely taught in some part of the Divine book, 
but a truth upon which the whole plan of God's dealings 
with Jews, Pagans, and Christians, is based. In 
tfact none, save a few incorrigible skeptics, have ever 
denied it. Now, the doctrine of Predestination is in- 
consistent with responsibility. A bond or obligation 
signed under fear of life or duress of imprisonment, 
would be set aside by our courts of law, as not the free 
act of the party enforced. In as far as a man can 
show that he acted under some overwhelming and irre- 
sistible necessity — no matter how wicked the thing 
would have been under other circumstances — we re- 
lease him from all blame, in a matter which he could 
not avoid. In like manner, if he is compelled to do 
well, we give him no credit for the good he has done. 

Our general sense of responsibility, is bounded and 
limited by freedom and ability. Just at the point in 
which freedom is taken away, there responsibility ceas- 
es. If then, our piety be Ihe result of an irresistable 
grace, there is in that piety, no moral quality, — there is 
norroom for praise. The virtue of that character, at- 
11* 



1815 BIBLE ELECTION. 

t aches not to the man, but to the being who compelled 
him to do right. 

If our bad actions arise from an irresistable necessi- 
ty, then that necessity relieves us from every particle of 
blame in the matter. Man stands forth innocent in the 
presence of God, and the blame of all the sin on earth, 
falls back upon that being, who decreed that of neces- 
sity it should be. Light can as soon hold communion 
with darkness, and Christ with Belial, as fatalism and 
responsibility can stand together. God has proclaimed 
war between them, and the ingenuity of man can nev- 
er make them harmonize. 

2. The doctine of Calvinistic election, cannot be 
made to harmonize with the acknowledged truth, that 
God has o.ppointed a day in which he will judge the 
world, in righteousness. The ground on which sen- 
tence on that great day shall be pronounced, is evident- 
ly character, especially as manifested in their treatment 
of Christ, and his cause. Let a judge patiently hear 
the merits of a cause — witnesses be examined — the law 
read and expounded — and then sentence be pronounced, 
and it be afterward discovered that the sentence arose 
TLot from the merits of the cause, but that the judge 
and jury condemned the culprit because they had re- 
ceived instruction from the General Government to 
bring to punishment a certain fixed and definite num- 
ber of prisoners, a list of whose names were lying be- 
fore them during trial. Who would not pronounce 
tiuch a proceeding in a law court, a very mockery of 
justice — a flagrant stain upon cur national escutcheon, 
and not Legislature, Judge, and Jury, be held as decern 
deceivers and imposters? They bad attempted to blind the 
eyes of men, by an appearance of justice, while these 
forms were only dumb show, and the conviction arose 
iVom the secret decree. If at the last clay the Judge of 
all, shall decide the fate of men according to an eter- 
nu] decree, then an enquiry into their characters is only 
a deceptive farce, intended to hide the real ground. 
Hot if a bona fide judgment is made according to char- 
acter, taking all circumstances into account, then the 
decree of election passes for nought, and the good man 
*ball enter Heaven whether elected or reprobated from 
jjAl eternity. 



BIBLE ELECTION. 127 

3. The Calvinistic theory of election is incosistcnt 
with the declarations of Scripture that God desires not 
the death of the sinner, but would lather see 
him turn and live. Isaiah, in making a prophetic 
proclamation of the Gospel which was afterwards to be 
preached, invites the wicked to forsake his way, rnd the 
unrighteous man his thoughts, and to return to the 
Lord, for he will have mercy upon him, and to our God 
for he will abundantly pardon. If God has chosen from 
all eternity a definite number for himself, an invitaticn 
of this kind would be likely to deceive unelected per- 
sons, by making them believe that God w r ould accept 
them if they repented; whereas this could not be, for 
God has foreordained them to dishonor and wrath. 
The wicked Scribes and Pharisees, who impenitently 
heard the teaching, and saw the miracles of Christ, 
were evidently children of Perdition. John called them 
a generation of vipers; Jesus tells them that they will 
die in their sins, and that where he is going, there they 
cannot come. Nothing can be clearer than that ac- 
cording to Calvinism, they were reprobates. Yet the 
Savior weeps over them and exclaims: "How often 
would I have gathered you, as a hen gathereth her 
chickens, but you would not." Again he says: "Ye 
will not come unto me that you might have life." The 
Apostles every where exhorted men to faith and repent- 
ance, assuring them of remission of sins and the favor 
of God; but they never once intimated in their dis- 
courses that any obstacle on the part of God stood in 
the way of any man's gracious reception. Through 
the* medium of miraculous teaching, Peter learned the 
great truth that God was no respecter of persons; but 
that "in every nation he that fearet h God and worketh 
righteousness is accepted of him.'* In the 18th chap- 
ter of Ezekiel, Jehovah asks have I any pleasure at all 
that the wicked should die, and not that he should re- 
turn from his w«ys and live? Tht-n in the close of ths 
chapter he answers the question, by emphatically de- 
claring that he has no pleasure im'the death of him 
thatdieth; therefore, says he, turn yourselves and live 
Here is the greatest possible difference between the re- 
vealed will of God, and that secret will, which he i* 



128 BIBLE ELECTION. 

supposed to have exercised, in deciding the eternal des- 
tiny of men. 

4. Calvinism is inconsistent with the assumption eve- 
ry where made in Scripture, that good men may fall 
from their piety, and forfeit the Divine favor. Ezekiel de- 
clares that "when the righteous man turneth away from 
his righteousness, and ■ committeth iniquity, and doth 
according to all the abominations that the wicked man 
doth, shall he live? all his righteousness that he hath 
done shall not he mentioned, in his trespass that he 
hath trespassed, and in his sin that he hath sinned, in 
them, he shall die." Now, according to Calvinism, when 
a man turns to wickedness and dies in sin, it is esteemed 
a proof that he never was a righteous man; but only a 
hypocritical professor, Shall we agree with Calvin 
that a righteous man never falls from his righteousness, 
so as to die in sin; or ^believe with the prophet Ezekiel 
that he may thus destroy himself? This is a point on 
which our experience, and observation in Christian his- 
tory may be brought to bear. Probably most observing 
persons have known young men set out in their Chris- 
tian profession, with every token of sincerity, zeal, and 
Godliness, entirely too elevated in their moral princi- 
ples to admit a doubt of their honesty to be entertained; 
and yet in after years by the deceitful influence of 
•worldly cares, or the seductions of improper compan- 
ions, they have been induced to forsake God and their 
Christian duties, and have died as the wicked, without 
hope in their death. Paul in his letter to the Hebrews, 
• Gth chapter, 4th verse, describes the progress that such 
an one may have made in good things, and the fearful 
(•anger of his fallen state: 'For it is impossible for 
those who were enlightened, (or converted by the Gos- 
:M( d and baptized) and have tasted of the Heavenly 
gift, (or received the gift of a free justification), and 
were made partakers of the Holy Ghost, and have 
tasted the good word (or the goodness of the word) of 
God, and the powers of the world to come, if they shall 
fall away, to renew them again unto repentance. Why 
does God judge thus harshly of such cases? the reas- 
on is assigned; because, like the earth on which the 
rain falls in due season, God has done dll for their 




BIBLE ELECTION. 129 

•complete reformation, that could with propriety be done:; 
yet, like the earth which bringeth forth only briars and 
thorns, they bear not fruit unto Godliness, and are nigh 
unto cursing, and their end destruction. It is surely a 
very difficult effort for an enquiring mind to be satisfied 
with the application of these tokens of enlightenment 
— receiving the Heavenly gift — and enjoying the pres- 
ence of the Holy Spirit, to a person who has not yet 
attained to true Christianity. By what higher marks or 
tokens then, could a truly converted man be described? 
Surely there is no stronger description in human lan- 
guage, of renovated character. It is ridiculous to say 
.that such a man was not a Christian, for, how can any 
man fall away from what he has never attained to? 
Can he make an apostacy from the Divine favor, before 
he has ever gained the Divine favor? and if he only 
fell from a hypocritical profession, the sooner he thin* 
falls and ceases to practice hypocrisy the better. It i* 
also equally futile to say that the Apostle makes here 
only a supposed case, resting upon an //'which may 
never have occurred. This idea has been started, in 
^evident ignorance of the form of expression used in 
the Greek original, which is not if they fall away, but 
a past participle, literally meaning — they having fallcM 
away. In fact their fall has no more of an //'about it 
.than their enlightenment, or enjoyment of the Holy 
.Gho t, or tasting of the powers of the world to come., 
.for the grammatical form of all these expressions, is 
exactly the same. Dr. Bloomfield in his critical notes 
to the New Testament translates it when they fall away. 
All equivocating attempts then, to neutialize the force 
of this passage is vain, and we are shut up to the ne- 
cessity of admitting, that the Scripture represents it a« 
possible for a good man to fall into sin, and be ruined,: 
but Calvinism declares this thing to be impossible. 
The same solemn truth is taught by Paul in the 10th 
chapter of Hebrews, 26th verse. 'If, says he, we sin 
wilfully, after we have received the knowledge of the* 
truth, there remains no more sacrifice for sins. Why i« 
this? he answers, 'because they have trodden under 
foot the Son of God, and counted the blood of the cove- 
nant, wherewith they were sanctified, an unholy thing., 



13d -BIBLE ELECTION-. 

and done despite to the spirit of grace. 5 Seeing then, 
that shipwreck may be made of faith, and of a good con- 
science, that it is perfectly possible in the nature of 
things, for men to fall into a total apostacy from the 
Christian religion, and that only the3 r who endure to 
the end shall be saved; we are compelled by the force 
of plain and unmistakable declarations of God's word, 
to reject the idea of God's having elected a certain 
number to eternal life before the world was, and w r ithit 
falls its kindred position that all saints being the elect 
of God, must necessarily persevere unto the end and 
be eternally saved. 

It has often been asserted that one single text is 
enough to prove the truth of any doctrine; this may be 
true when that doctrine labors under no particular ob- 
jection from any other quarter, and harmonizes well 
with the general tenor of Biblical teaching, but it sure- 
Ly were an act of madness to build upon one or two 
isolated passages, the meaning <^f which may easily be 
mistaken, a theory which contradicts and nullifies so 
many well established Bible truths, as we have speci- 
fied. Would there not be strong ground to suspect 
ourselves of error in any interpretation of Scripture 
passages which tends to destroy man's sense of re- 
sponsibility for hi; : actions, to render -and farci- 
cal the solemn tribunal of a future judgment — to make 
the free invitations of God's word meaningless and de- 
ceptive — to require the erasure from the Bible of all the 
conditional particles upon which the promise of eter- 
nal salvation is predicated, and to make the Eternal 
Father appear partial and a tyrannical being who pun- 
ish; not from any thing in us, but merely ac- 
cording to his own pleasure ? Would we be justified in 
ht of God or man, in accepting or teaching a 
ory which labors under so many serious objections, 
unless that theory was forced upon us by the most plain 
and unequivocal assertions of Holy Writ? Now, when 
the very passages which Oalvinists adduce in proof of 
their position, are found, upon a careful examination of 
the circumstances under which they are written, and 
the nature of the context, to apply to another and a 
very different thing from a decree fixing the eternal 



131 

destiny of man — when the elections of the Bible are 
found to be simplj rer of men un- 

der the je ian constitutions, and finally 

selecting according to character, those that are found 
worthy to the Lamb; when this sort of 

election, ill believers in the Bible must admit to 

have taken place, answers fully to the demands of 
ge passages— when this election is liable to no ob- 
tions fron and contradicts no other Bible 

truth what< >uld with thankfulness re- 

ceive it. It turns off from Christianity, a weapon 
which I against her with fearful ef- 

fect, ft releases ] i the thankless toil of 

reconciling cc explaining my 

i proclaiming a free salvation to all 
the world. ; = frc< • from the ridiculous position 

of teaching body of a discourse, and 

subverting ; iin the closing exhortation, and final- 

ly, though not the least important — the abandonment 
of this supera] , will remove a trouble- 

some s< ss and ill feeling among the 

professed followers of Jesus Christ, and enable the 
watchmen to eye — the Lord bring- 

ing again Zi 



CHRISTIAN BAPTISM EXAMINED; 

In answer to the questions — Who should be baptized? and how 
shoidd baptism be performed? being extracts from letters 
first addressed to Rev. R. C. Grundy, I). D., of the Pres- 
byterian Church -, by John Ypuno, of the Christian Church; 
first published in the Maysville Post Boy, in the year 185*1 . 



WHO SHOULD BE BAPTIZED ? 

to the rf,v. dr. grundy. 

Dear Sir: 

A letter from you in the columns of the Pcfet 
Boy seems to require my attention. I will make my de- 
fense of the principles held in common by Baptists and 
Reformers as brief as possible. 

You allege that, Baptist views are unscriptural and 
injurious, because the denial of infant Baptism de- 
stroys the existence of a visible church before the day of 
Pentecost. 

If, say sou, "the Christian eliurch began at Pentecost, 
ften God could have had no visible church before that 
fime." 

If, then. Dr. Grundy, I should enquire of you when 
the Christian church began, you would reply that, it 
commenced in the days of Abraham and with the rite 
of circumcision. But have a care, Doctor, lest by 
taking that ground you, too, become guilty of the same 
crime of destroying the church during all time before 
Abraham lived. There was a gospel preached to Ad- 
am in promise — men were saved before the flood — there 
were sons of God and sons of men, and thus a church 
before the Hood. Now, if you start your church in the 
days of Abraham, don't you thereby destroy the church 
before the ilood? True, they had no circumcision in 
that church, and us you build upon circumcision, it does 
not suit your purpose to step over the flood and begin 
your church with Adam. Yet I suppose that the Pres- 
byterian church could be as plausibly deduced from Adam 



LETTERS ON BAPTISM. 133 

as from Abraham. Most heartily do I wish that you 
would take the Bible as your only guide in these mat- 
ters; it might save you from the mortification of such a 
blunder as this one about destroying the church. Who 
doubts that there was a Jewish church long before the 
Christian church? No one. Who denies that there 
was an Antediluvian church long before the Jewish? 
Yet it had no circumcision in it, just as the Christian 
church has none, except what Paul figuratively calls 
circumcision of the heart. Your church and the Jew- 
ish church-, you say, are the same church. Now, sir, 
this is certainly the stronghold of infant baptism; yes, 
it is the very citadel itself, and I will overthrow it by 
thirteen arguments, which to the day of eternity you 
will never answer. 

1. The Jewish church was a national establishment; 
yours, in America, is not so, but only a voluntary asso- 
ciation. And now I retort the charge of evil tenden- 
cy upon your infant baptism. It bases the church not 
upon faith, but upon flesh, and by bringing all the chil- 
dren into the church tends to raise up a national estab- 
lishment of religion in any country where it becomes 
prevalent. 

2. The Jewish church was required to stone trans- 
gressors to death; the Christian church has no power to 
hurt the hair of any man's head. 

3. The Jewish church had a bequest of the land of 
Canaan, made to it at the time circumcision was ap- 
pointed; but your church does not lay any claim to that 
country that I know of. 

4. Circumcision was appointed in connection with 
the promise, that the Messiah should spring from Abra- 
ham's children; but your church does not expect a Mes- 
siah to be born from its infant members. 

5. The Jewish people did not circumcise females; but 
you baptize them. Your practice does not accord with 
the law of circumcision. 

6. The Jewish church circumcised servants upon the 
Judaism of their masters; but you would not baptize 
grown up slaves, who don't believe in Jesus. 

7. The Jewish church was governed by the law of 
Moses; but the Christian church is directed by the law 

12 



134 LETTERS ON BAPTISM. 

of Christ. The one came from Sinai, the other from 
Zion. Paul says that there is, of necessity, a change of 
the law. Therefore, away goes infant membership, 
with the change of the law T , unless you can find it re- 
newed in the new law. 

8. God says, cast out the bond woman and her son, 
which Paul says meant the Jewish church; and as your 
church hangs on to the Jew T ish church, it is of course 
cast out with the bond woman. Why, then, should you 
complain of our not admitting you to communion, 
when you identify yourselves with a church that God 
has rejected? 

9. Paul says, circumcision makes a man a debtor to 
do the whole law. Now, you. say baptism stands in its 
place; if so, then it binds you to do the whole law of 
Moses; but you don't try to do the whole law, and if 
you did, Paul would tell you that you were not under 
the law, but under grace, 

10. Jesus and all those males baptized by John, to- 
gether with those baptized on the Pentecost, had been 
circumcised in infancy; but it did not answer in the 
room of Baptism. They had to enter the new king- 
dom by faith and personal piety; rather than to say, as 
of old, "We have Abraham to our father." 

11. Jeremiah prophecies that God will make a nev? 
covenant or constitution, because they broke the old 
one, and that he will write his laws in their minds. 
Now in agreement with this, we have an old covenant 
and a new; but I have yet to learn that in the new, 
God writes his laws on the minds of the infants. The 
Christian church is under the New T Covenant; but it 
may be that Dr. Grundy still keeps his under the old; 
or, more probably, he culls out, by piecemeal, a little from 
the old, and a little from the new. Thus putting new 
cloth upon an old garment — and new wine into old bot- 
tles. 

12. John the Baptist came preaching the kingdom of 
Heaven at hand. That kingdom certainly was the 
Christian church. Now, if it had subsisted from the 
days of Abraham, what propriety could there be in 
John's holding out the prospect of an old thing, as just 
at ha: 



LETTERS ON BAPTISM. 135 

13. Jesus, not Moses, gave the commission to baptize; 
and it runs thus: "he that belie veth and is baptized 
shall be saved." The commission to circumcise runs 
thus: "he that is eight days old among you shall be cir- 
cumcised/" How wonderfully alike they look — just as 
much alike as a windmill is like to an armed knight of 
chivalry. 

Now, Doctor, I advise you either to answer these ar- 
guments fairly, or else, in token of increasing wisdom, 
lay your hand upon your lips. 

The Doctor's argument about an 'immersion Bible' 
is used, I presume, more for effect than argument. All 
the works of man are necessarily imperfect, and need 
emendation, at least so the Pedo Baptists, who have 
made new versions, have supposed. If we could bring 
out a more perfect version than the old, then the tend- 
ency would not be evil, but good. 

The 4th argument used by the Doctor is startling in- 
deed. Immersion, says he, destroys the meaning of 
Baptism, by making it emblematical of a burial and 
resurrection. Now, I well knew that he would most 
dogmatically contradict what we might ailedge but I 
was astonished to find him flying in the face of Paul so 
directly. I hope he will .recollect that it is Paul who 
says, "buried by baptism into death." 

Finally, I have no wish to be embarked in a mere 
personal paper war with Dr. Grundy. I have no fault 
to find with him as a gentleman, I only dislike his the- 
ology, and wish him better informed upon the Scrip- 
tures. My call upon him was a respectful one. My 
object was simply to elicit truth. If the Doctor be pre- 
pared to defend his position, or discuss the question, I 
am prepared to do the same. If not, let the matter 
rest, and the public will bring in their verdict according 
to the evidence in the case. 

Yours, .respectfully, 

JOHN YOUNG. 



136 LETTERS ON BAPTISM. 

TO THE REV. DR. GRUNDY. 

Dear Sir : You attempted a reply to the 2d of my 
thirteen arguments, and as it did not properly belong to 
the subject of my last letter, I have reserved its refuta- 
tion till now. 

One only out of thirteen you singled out, supposing 
you could overturn it; but alas for you, you were never 
more unfortunate than in that attempt. You say the 
simple truth is that this stoning of transgressors was 
part of the Jewish Theocracy or civil regulation, and 
no essential part of what properly belonged to the 
church then. This is true as to the mode of death call- 
ed stoning, but not true as to putting to death. Turn to 
Gen. 17: 14. There at the close of the command 
which God gave to Abraham to circumcise his descend- 
ants, the Almighty adds: "and the uncircumcised man- 
child that soul shall be cut off from his people — he 'hath 
broken my covenant." There were no Jews in exist- 
ence then — no civil polity made. That which misled 
you was the fact that Moses in his law prescribes sto- 
ning as a mode of punishment, but the cutting off of 
the uncircumcised was to be done in some way from the 
hour that circumcision was first appointed. It was a 
part of the original law of circumcision, that the un- 
circumcised should be cut off, by what death it does not 
say. My argument then stands perfectly unshaken, 
and I now ask you again how you have the hardihood 
to teach that the law of circumcision regulates your 
baptism, when that law required the uncircumcised to 
be cut off; and you break through it entirely by not cut- 
ting off the unsprinkled infant of a believer. 

14th argument. The law of circumcision required 
the act to be performed when the infant was eight days 
old. This again you disregard. Some are sprinkled 
earlier, some later, few perhaps on the 8th day, and 
thus you wantonly violate the very law from which you 
get your infant sprinkling. Not so the Jews, they would 
circumcise even on the Sabbath, that the Law might 
not be broken. 
.15th argument. The covenant of circumcision was 



LETTERS ON BAPTISM. Vol 

to be in their flesh for an everlasting covenant. Pray 
does sprinkling remain a mark in the flesh any way. 

16th. Apostles and Elders held a council in Jerusa- 
lem, and debated about relieving the Gentiles from all 
real or supposed obligation to be circumcised; see Acts 
15 eh. Peter asserted there of circumcision and the 
law, that it was a yoke which neither they nor their fa- 
thers were able to bear — the Apostles and Elders re- 
lease the Gentiles from being circumcised, but say not 
a word against circumcision, to the Jews, and strange 
to say, they do not mention the supposed coming of 
Baptism in its room, as their reason for rejecting cir- 
cumcision. 

17th. The Presbyterian church administers baptism 
to a child upon the ground that one of the parents of 
that child is a believer — but this is entirely different 
from the covenant of circumcision, for by it upon the 
ground of Abraham's faith, all his deceiidants were to 
be circumcised down to the latest generations. The 
father, grandfather and great grandfather of a Jewish 
child might be very wicked, have no faith at all, yet the 
Abrahamic covenant demanded its circumcision on 
pai.u of death. 

18th. Paul plainly asserts, Rom. 2 — 28, that circum- 
cision was a type not of baptism but of a change of 
heart, his words are: "Circumcision is that of the heart 
in the Spirit, and not in the letter. Again in Col. 1 — 
11. I^c says, "the circumcision of Christ is the putting 
off the body of the sins of the flesh. Then in the next 
verse he speaks of Baptism as the next step to follow 
after that change of heart and reformation from sinful 
conduct. Now the difference between Paul and you is 
a very marked one. Paul teaches that the renewal of 
the heart and putting away sin comes in the room of 
circumcision, but you say no ! baptism comes in its 
-loom. Which am I to follow Paul or Dr. Grundy? 

You will see, Doctor, by this time, that if you want to 
keep even with me in this discussion, you must bestir 
vA r ourself. The argument you attempted to answer, 1 
have rescued out of your hamls, &&& now five more aro 
added, while the whole phalanx of them safe and 
sound, still confront you J will $ow attend to another 
12* 



"138 LETTERS ON BAPTISM. 

argument introduced in your last letter. You say, "the 
Savior instituted the Lord's Supper in place of the 
Passover while at the Passover table"-^I have learned, 
my dear sir, that the Passover was a type not of the 
Supper, but of the death of the Savior. Paul says, 1. 
Cor. 5 — 7, Christ, our Passover, is sacrificed for us. 
Now, sir, admit if you please, the fact that, the Jewish 
Passover ends then, and that the Lord's Supper begins 
upon its termination, it will be of no service for the 
purpose you desire. No man in the present day, would 
think of going back to the law of the Passover to de- 
termine who should eat of the supper. Your own 
church does not do it. In the supper you do not direct 
people back to the deliverance out of Egypt — you do 
not eat in haste — you do not eat it only once a year — 
you do not let a whole nation, good and bad, eat the 
supper, as the Jews did the Passover. No, you totally 
reject the law of the P-assover from governing your 
churches, and you look to the New Testament for your 
rule and guide as to the Holy Supper, saying with 
Paul, let a man examine himself and so let him eat of 
that bread. This is precisely the plan I ask you to 
pursue about baptism and circumcision. The law of 
the Passover does not govern the Supper, and the law 
of circumcision does not govern Baptism. Moses gave 
full directions for all the services pertaining to the 
Jewish church. Christ and his Apostles give full di- 
rections for all the ordinances of the Christian church. 
There are points of resemblance between the two insti- 
•'Uitions- — they botlr look to Christ as a centre — but for 
the clergy to select some ordinances; from the old cove- 
nant, and add them to the new, is to build up a Ro- 
man Babylon rather than a Christian church. Where 
does Rome go to get her order of Priests. Her Pontiff 
robes, her altar, her mass or sacrifice, her unction and 
her anointing? Where, I say, but from the Jewish 
church? And yet you, a Protestant, are laboring to prove 
that, the Jewish and Christian churches are the same 
institution. Shame upon such absurdity!! Most of the 
corruptions that have ever defiled Christianity since 
the days of the Judaising teachers, whom Paul opposed, 
vo arisen from this source, "Behold, I Paul, say unto 






'•LETTERS ON BAPTiM. 139 

you, that if ye be circumcised, Christ shall profit you 
nothing-." 

Tithes, National churches, killing* men on account, of 
religion, the power of the Priesthood, and the sprinkling 
of babes, all come from the same fruitful source of er- 
ror, the identification of the Jewish and the Christian 
churches as one body — and full time it surely is that, 
we should lay bare its native baldness and lack of evi- 
dence, until its advocates should in shame abandon 
these Romahish traditions. Your argument No. 2, in this 
letter is that, one hundred and twenty disciples on whom 
the Spirit came, were not baptized at all — but their cir- 
cumcision was received for baptism. How wonderfully 
clear sighted you are to look through eighteen centu- 
ries, and perceive that these persons were not baptized. 
Certainly no such thing is stated in the New Testament, 
and the passages you refer to, but do not quote, inti- 
mate no such thing. "Then came out Jerusalem and 
all Judea, and all the region round about Jordan and 
were baptized of John, in Jprd3.11, confessing their sins" 
(no babes there). Are you sure these disciples were 
not am: multitude? "Jesus made and baptized 

more di than John," but you will have us be- 

lieve that these one hundred and twenty alone he re- 
ceived Without baptism. Yes he must even be baptised 
himself to fulfill all righteousness, yet you will have it 
that he neutralized the force of his own example by 
setting one hundred and twenty unbaptized persons in 
the very front of his kingdom. Besides, two of theso 
persons were certainly John's disciples, and followed 
Jesus when they heard John say he was the Lamb of 
God. Now, Mr. Grundy, you will not pretend that per- 
sons were called the disciples of John without first being 
baptized. In fact this denial of the baptism of these 
one hundred and twenty is so improbable in itself, so 
contrary to the course of both John and Jesus; that it 
stretches my credulity to the utmost to suppose that you 
believe it yourself; but, sir, I am glad to see you put it 
forth, for it shows the dreadful state of a cause which 
is compelled to resort to such a defence. But the validi- 
ty of their circumcision was acknowledged you say by 
.their reception. Then why was not the the validity of 



140 LETTERS ON BAPTISM, 

the circumcision mf Jesus acknowledged by his neglect- 
. i-ng baptism? Why was not the validity of the circum- 
cision of all the Jews who came out to John, acknowl- 
edged, and their baptism dispensed with? Validity of 
circumcision acknowledged ! ! ! Who ever doubted its 
validity? It was valid and good for the object for which 
it was appointed; but a Jewish descent and a circum- 
cision to boot, never could give any man a title to en- 
ter into a kingdom that was built upon the principle of 
faith in Christ. Dr. Grundy, the cause of your infant 
sprinkling is a weak one, and even strong men have 
hard enough labor to bolster it up, and make it appear 
plausible; but I am too proud to claim a victory over 
.your church by destroying, your arguments. Wherein 
your great strength lies I know not; but certain I am 
that, it lies not in the advocacy of this cause, and you will 
hereafter act wisely to avoid provoking controversy, 
which can only terminate in exposing the nakedness §f 
the land. 

I will now turn to your last and greatest .argument 
■for the identity of the two churches, derived . fr^in the 
figure of the olive tree. If you had beeji well instructed 
in Biblical criticism, you would have learned that it is 
not safe to press such figures as metaphors, allegories, 
and parables, too closely. The resemblance will hold 
always in some one or two points, beyond this we are 
in danger of being carried away by the mere filling up 
of the figure or parable. For instance, in the parable of 
the Prodigal Son, .we need not try to spiritualize the 
fatted calf — the ring; or the robe — the music or the dan- 
cing — they are the mere drapery of the picture. 

Now, nothing certainly was farther from .Paul's mind 
than to teach, the identity of Judaism and Christianity 
lader the metaphor of an olive tree. The point of illus- 
tration was the cutting off of the Jewish nation from being 
the public >:er '/ants of God, and the placing of believers, 
whether Jews or Gentiles in the position of being God's 
people. The.sc two points are matters of fact, about 
which there is no dispute, and a wise man will not at- 
tempt to sec any other mystery in the figure. But 
reasonable, though this course may be, it yet might not 
satisfy those who are prejudiced ia. favor of your thco- 



LETTERS ON BAPTISM. 141 

ry. I will therefore positively overturn the superstruct- 
ure you have raised. The Jewish church you Bay is the 
olive tree. WeH^the Jewish church was broken down, 
the city was laid in ruins — the people slain or carried 
captive. The law was fulfilled in Christ — and passed 
away — the temple itself was demolished — the Mosaic 
ritual ceased — every vestige of Judaism passed away. 
What olive tree have we then left? Have we not bro- 
ken the stock of the tree by this process, instead of the 
bra: Further, I would press on you the enquiry: 

What is a church? It is not books— it is not worship — 
nor a ritual; but it is people, human beings; Ecricsia 
means an assembly. Now, it was certain!}' the people, 
the ccelesia or church that were broken off through un- 
belief, and a new people or new 7 ccelesia were graifed in. 
What then was the stock of this tree — this good olive 
tree? I will not dogmatically affirm what it was, for 
nothing is more unsafe than to spiritualize the whole of 
a figure such as this. 

But, I will remark that, it most likely, was the Messi- 
ah, or Christ. The Jewish church was built upon the 
promise of Christ. Her ordinances, most of them, look- 
ed to Christ. The virtue of her religious services was 
to come from the death of Christ. The Jews were cut 
off for rejecting Christ — and into Christ the christian 
church was certainly engrafted — he says himself: I am 
the vine ye are the branches. Now, Dr. Grundy, you 
are a great stickler for orthodoxy; and I now ask you 
to consider how orthodox my interpretation of this pas- 
sage is; and how heterodox is yours. 

You make the Gentiles to partake of the root and 
fatness of the Jewish church. This, sir, is the quintes- 
sence of Popery. What fatness has any church to im- 
f)art? Is a church the root and sap from which a be- 
iever takes his nourishment? No, sir, this root and fat- 
ness is the love, wisdom, and graces, of Christ. "I am 
the vine, says Jesus, ye are the branches, he that abid- 
eth in me, and I in him, the same bringeth forth much 
fruit; for without me ye can do nothing." 

Your third argument is, that Abraham is the father 
of all them that believe — this needs little answer from 
me, as it answers itself— -them that believe are not infants 



142 LETTERS ON BAPTISM. 

surely, our infants are not believers. Your own proofs 
speak pointedly against you. But as this connexion of 
Abraham with believers is involved in perfect mystery by 
your theology; for the sake of your intelligent and read- 
ing people, I will brush away some of the cobwebs. Abra- 
ham had tw T o sons, Ishmael, naturally, Isaac, miraculously. 

Paul, in Galatians, 4th chapter, informs us, that Ish- 
mael was a figure of the Jewish nation, who descended 
from Abraham, and were combined into a church poli- 
ty by mere fleshly birth. Their natural descent formed 
the ground and title to membership. Infants were 
members of that polity by earthly birth, just as Ishma- 
el was born without Divine interposition,, 

But, from the seed of Abraham — which was Christ, 
(see Gal. 3, 18: "And to thy seed, which is Christ") a 
new kingdom, church, or polity was to arise, not by nat- 
ural descent, for Christ left no natural descendants on 
earth; but by faith, or a spiritual birth. This was type- 
fled by the birth of Isaac being a miraculous one, and 
he even raised from the dead in a figure. How, then, 
are this spiritual seed of Abraham born? How came 
these members into the new kingdom? Let John an- 
swer. "Who w r ere born not of blood nor of the will of 
the flesh, but of God." "To as many as believe on the 
name of Jesus, gave he power to become the sons of 
God." 

Let Paul answer — "They which are of faith, the same 
are the children of Abraham, (spiritually.) 

"These are born after the spirit in contrast to the 
Jews, born after the flesh. Gal. 4, 29." 'If ye be 
Christ's, then are ye Abraham's seed and heirs, accord- 
ing to the promise." 

^e are all the children of God, by faith in Jesus 
Christ," "That the promise of faith might be given to 
them that believe." 

"Whosoever believeth that Jesus is the Christ, is born 
of God," Except a man be born of water and of the 
spirit, he cannot enter into the Kingdom of God " To 
all this precisely agrees the commission, he that believ- 
eth and is baptized, shall be saved. May I be baptized, 
says the Eunuch? If thou believest with all thy heart 
— thou mayest. 



LETTERS ON BAPTISM. 143 

The idea of combining infants in their natural state 
into a spiritual kingdom based on faith, is an absurdity 
never surpassed in church history except by transub- 
stantiation itself, and I bear love enough for my Presby- 
terian friends to ask them for the Lord's sake to open 
their eyes and see this matter as it really is. But, as to 
you, Dr. Grundy, your work now lies out plainly before 
you. Whenever you show that your infants have faith; 
that they believe the record God gave of his Son; that 
they are born of the Spirit — then, and not till then, the 
New Testament will consent to their baptism. 

I now add a nineteenth argument, proving the differ- 
ence between the Jewish church and the Christian, Je- 
sus said, "on this rock I will build my church," he spoke 
in the future tense; you teach that His church was built 
in the time of Abraham and Moses. 

20th argument. Christ declared before Pilate that, 
His kingdom was not of this world — not national — not 
earthly in its objects — based on faith — not on flesh. 
It differed then from the Jewish church. 

21st. Paul says, Christ has made in himself of twain 
(viz: Jews and Gentiles) one new man so making peace 
— that one new man was undoubtedly one new kingdom 
or church. This, then, crowns the column. My doctrine 
stands firm as the pillars of Heaven; and I now say, 
no man in this Union can tear this fabric down without 
pulling down Divine truth and involving the Bible and 
the spirituality of the church in the ruins. 

You ask for Scriptural authority to turn out infants. 
There is no turning out necessary. The constitution 
containing them in its membership passed away with 
the removal of Judaism. While John Baptist plainly 
announced the new order of things, by telling the Jews 
that they need not think to say longer within them- 
selves we have Abraham to our father. Yes, they sup- 
posed that their descent from Abraham entitled them to 
m; but John taught them better, by assuring 
m that -every tree bringing not forth good fruit, 
must be hewn down find cast into the fire/' Here, 
then, Dr. Grundy, your claim of the circumcision cove- 
nt is rejected at the very first dawn of Christianity 
zer himself. We t< i to our 



144 LETTERS ON BAPTISM. 

Lord's commission, which is certainly the organic law 
of the Christian kingdom. Matthew says go make dis- 
ciples of all nations. Mark explains this making dis- 
ciples to be preaching the Gospel and their believing. 
Those, then, who are made disciples by their hearing 
the Gospel and believing it, are authorized to be bap- 
tized. The Apostles who acted under this commission 
dared not go a step further than what their Lord en- 
joined. They, therefore, on the Pentecost, baptized 
three thousand believers, and believers only; for we are 
told "such as gladly received the word of the Lord 
were baptized." Philip, at Samaria, baptized those 
who believed, "both men and women," but no infants. 
In the house of Cornelius, the Holy Ghost fell on them 
only "who heard' the Word." 

What Lydia's household consisted of, we learn from 
Acts, 15: 40, where they are called brethren. Of the 
Jailor's household we are told that, "they spake to him 
the word of the Lord and to all that were in his 
house." These, then, to whom the words of the Lord 
were spoken, were very fit subjects for baptism; see 
Acts, 16: 32. They are also said to believe, in the 
34th verse, "He set meat before them and rejoiced, 
believing in God with all his house." I would like, as a 
matter of curiosity, to see one of your sprinkled infants 
believing in God. Of the household of Stephanus it is 
said that they addicted themselves to the ministry of 
the saints. They were then a tolerably active kind of 
infants, whom Paul baptized in that household; sec 1 
Cor. 16: 15. 

Thus, I think, even your last refuge of household 
baptism has failed you — and that the issue of the mat- 
ter comes to be that your baptism is unsciuptural and 
of kvil tendency, and should consequently be repudiat- 
ed by all lovers of the Bible. 

I have now answered every shadow of argument you 
have advanced, and presented a body of proof which 
can only be removed by being fairly replied to in de- 
tail; whether you can or will do this, time alone can 
show. 



LETTERS ON BAPTISM. 145 

TO THE REV. DR. GRUNDY. 

Dear Sir: — The assumption made in your last letter, 
outdistance even the haughtiest pretensions of the Pa- 
pacy. "It out-herods Herod." You are not content 
with tracing the Christian church up to the family of 
Abraham; but you face the difficulty, clear the flood at 
one bound, and plant the standard in the family of 
Adam. 

Now, sir, do you think that even credulity itself can 
be made to believe that anything like the Christian 
church in name, nature, shape, fashion, body, essence 
or quintessence, existed in the days of Adam or Abra- 
ham? 

There was, as you say faith, and there was worship; 
but as to any church organization like that of New Test- 
ament times, there was no such thing in either the 
family of Adam or Abraham. 

You labor hard to make circumcision a permanent 
thing, or rather to show that, baptism is a mere per- 
petuation of it; and in doing so, you affirm, "that it 
was not a mere national mark of a Jew." 

Now, sir, I propose to prove that Paul considered it 
a mark to distinguish a Jew, and to distinguish the Jew- 
ish church polity, which in his day was passing away. 

l«t. Rom. ii. 25, "Circumcision (that is Judaism) 
profiteth if thou keep the law/' 

2d. Gal. ii. 9, "James, Cephas, and John gave us 
their hand to go unto the Heathen and they unto the 
circumcision," that is, unto the Jews. 

3d. Rom. iii. 1, "What advantage then hath the Jew, 
or what profit is there of circumcision." 

4th. Jesus Christ is called ".a minister of the circum- 
cision — to confirm the covenant made with the fathers " 
Rom. xv. 8. Now, in accordance with this fact, Jesus 
lived under the Law — He attended the worship of the 
Synagogue — His personal mission extended to the lost 
sheep of the house of Israel — not even to the Samari- 
tans — his church was not created during his own life — 
he laid the foundation of it in his death, and he in- 
structed Peter how to build it, after his decease. Dan- 
iel declared in prophecy, that in the days of those kings 
13 



146 LETTERS ON BAPTISM, 

the God of Heaven would set up a kingdom. When 
the proper time arrived Jesus said, on this rock (viz: 
faith in his Messiahship) I will build my church. Before 
the pentecost the materials were prepared, and on 
that celebrated occasion Peter used his key and admit- 
ted three thousand into the new kingdom. 

5th. The Gospel of the circumcision was committed 
to Peter. See Gal. ii. 7. So Paul says in his letter to 
Titus, i. 10, "that they of the circumcision are unruly." 
Why should I multiply proofs any farther? It is clear 
as sunlight from these passages in the writings of 
Paul, that he regarded circumcision as a mark of Juda- 
ism, and therefore called the Jews the circumcision. I 
now, sir, lay it down as a fixed fact, a great truth nev- 
er to be forgotten in this question; that the first flood of 
error that came into the Church of Christ, even in the 
very days of the apostles, was a preaching up of Juda- 
ism, and a mixing of its ceremonies with the simple re- 
ligion of the Nazarene. Against this tendency of things 
Paul struggled as long as he lived, but he con- 
tended in vain, for after his death these errors continu- 
ed to increase until the Papacy was at length firmlj 
established. I make this remark in view of your at- 
tempt to prove that infants were baptized within one 
hundred years after the death of the apostles. I care 
not that it could be traced to the year after John's 
death, so long as Christ or the Apostles have left no 
authority for it, for well I know that, the Judaizing ten- 
dency, which was the root from whence it sprung, was 
in existence in Paul's day, and threatened to cast Paul 
and others out of the very churches they had founded. 

Is it any wonder, then, that in two hundred years af- 
ter the apostles' death, they were carrying babes to a 
priest, aye, and even choking them, by putting the sa- 
cramental bread and wine into their mouths? But, sir, 
you are at last constrained to attempt a *reply to my 
twenty-two arguments against the identity of the two 
churches; and what an attempt it is ! Abraham was 
circumcised at ninety-nine years of age. True enough; 
but did not God command his descendants to be cir- 
cumcised at eight days old? Now, if the law of circum- 
cision directs infants to be baptized, it certainly direct? 









LETTERS ON BAPTISM. 147 

it to be done when eight days old; for there is no re 
peal of the time to be found in the New Testament. 
I am sorry that you are so dull in apprehending the 
bearing of an argument. I cannot both prove my 
points and and give you a mind to understand my 
proofs ! 

Believer, or adult baptism, you affirm to be irregular — 
extraordinary. The baptism of Jesus, then, was irregu- 
lar, and that of all Judea who came out to John, con- 
fessing their sins. The baptism which the disciples of 
Jesus performed on multitudes, was irregular. The 
baptism of the three thousand on Pentecost was irregu- 
lar. The baptism of the commission is therefore an 
irregular one; for it says, "he that believeth and is bap- 
tized shall be saved." 

Yes, sir, upon your own showing, Jesus gave a com- 
mission to direct only an irregular kind of baptism; but 
he said not a word about the kind which you call the 
established order of God. And is it come to this? Bear 
witness, men and angels ! ! ! that Dr. Grundy, in the 
desperateness of his extremity, pronounces the baptism 
of a believer irregular; while that is the only baptism 
spoken about in the Hew Testament. Then, in its 
stead he places infant baptism, contemplating it as ac- 
cording to the order of God, although he cannot, if he 
could gain the world by it, find one solitary case of in- 
fant baptism in the New Testament. Doctor, I saw 
from your chariness about them, that my arguments 
were pressing you sorely; but surely it would have been 
better to have remained forever silent than to have 
thus openly flung aside Hew Testament baptisms as 
unsuitable to your purpose. What is the use of the 
Nevr Testament if it teaches irregular ordinances. 
Your very friends must suspect from this, "that there is 
something rotten in the State of Denmark." But, say 
you, we make no allowance for a change of dispensa- 
tion. Perhaps, sir, you may not be aware that this 
phrase, change of dispensation, is never used in the 
Scriptures. The word dispensation is quoted four times 
in Cruden's Concordance, and is used each time in its 
ordinary sense, to denote the act of giving or dispens- 
ing, and is never applied to the passing away of Juda- 



148 LETTERS ON BAPTISM. 

sm at all. We therefore know nothing about a change 
of dispensation. It is a chimera grown up in the brains 
of dreaming theologians. 

We know from Paul that Judaism waxed old, that it 
passed away, that a better hope came in, established 
upon better promises. But certainly this phrase, 
change of dispensation is a very convenient one. It is 
made of India Rubber, and w T ill j ust be of any size 
wished for. Is it desirable to include infants? Then 
they are retained by organic law, although the very 
covenant that appointed them to be circumcised is re- 
jected, and eight days scouted at. Is it needful to get 
rid of the Canaan, the killing, the tithes and the bur- 
densome ceremonies of the law? Then we are told 
that we must make due account for the change of dis- 
pensation, and that these things can all be cut off, but 
the infants retained. Verily it is a convenient phrase, 
and if it is not scriptural, it is surely a pity that it were 
not so. Next, after all this, Doctor, I am certainly sur- 
prised to find that you grow tired of showing that there 
has always been only one church in the world, and that 
you actually conjure up two churches — the Jewish and 
the Christian — and make the one to be a type of the 
other. I thought you were proving, all along, that there 
was only one church. That one church, then, surely 
cannot be a type of itself. But fortunately they are 
both Pedo Baptist churches, and therefore look just like 
twin sisters ! ! Perhaps you had never seen them to- 
gether before, and therefore supposed that there was 
only one. Well, we are thankful for getting the truth 
out at last, although rather late and reluctantly. In 
fact, I feel so grateful for the confession that, I will not 
dare to say one word against their being typical of one 
another. There were two churches, then, and the old 
one was a type of a new one. This is Dr. Grundy's 
present hypothesis; we shall consequently hear no 
more of God having had only one church. We shall 
all be able, henceforth, to begin the church of Christ 
with the preaching and the baptism of Peter, and to 
admit that Judaism and Christianity are somewhat alike, 
only that the new church is much handsomer than the 
old, and has much Jess of flesh and much more of Spir- 
it about it. 






LETTERS ON BAPTISM. 140 

This comes, Doctor, of your dealing in fables. Truth 
is at all times consistent with itself. The shifting exi- 
gencies of your cause required you at one time to prove 
that only one church h&d ever existed, and at another 
to show that the Jewish church was a type of the Chris- 
tian church, which certainly multiplies one by two. 

I will now, sir, proceed to offer another series of 
proofs against the identity of circumcision and bap- 
tism. 

23d. Baptism, as practised by John and Jesus, was a 
pledge of reformation or repentance; but circumcision 
never was understood to be a circumcision of repent- 
ance. 

24th. Baptism, by the commission, was in the name 
of Father, Son, and Spirit; but circumcision had no 
name of the Almighty upon it. 

25th. Baptism symbolizes Christ's death; but circum- 
cision in no way alludes to this great fact. 

26th. Baptism bears distinct reference to the remis- 
sion of sins; hence the people were baptized by John, 
confessing their sins; but circumcision cannot be shown 
to be in any way connected with pardon. 

I am now prepared to answer your argument derived 
from Matt. xxi. 4'*. "Kingdom of God shall be taken 
from you and given to a nation bringing forth the fruits 
thereof/' 

There can be, and there is, a mistake made by you, 
in supposing that the phrase, Kingdom of God. must ne- 
cessarily mean church. Iu Matt. xii. 28, Jesus says if 
he cast out devils, then is the kingdom of God come to 
them; only his doctrine and miracles had then come,, 
Again, in Luke xvii. 21, Jesus says, the Kingdom of 
God is within you. Now, a church cannot be within 
people. I conclude, then, from these and other passa- 
ges, that this phrase usually denotes the Christian 
church, but is sometimes used to designate the privile- 
ges and advantages attendant upon Christ's personal 
ministry on earth. Thus publicans and harlots crowd- 
ed into the kingdom, viz: Took advantage of his public 
ministry and improved thereby. 

Note, now, that these privileges — this teaching and 
.miracles of Christ — were first given to tho^Jews. His 
13* 



150 LETTERS ON BAPTISM. 

mission was first to them; but because they would not 
bear fruit under it, it was transferred to the Gentiles. 
Thus your fancied proof vanishes into thin air, and I 
now affirm positively that, the phrase Kingdom of God, 
is never applied to the Jewish religion, or to the Jewish 
church. Disprove this if you can. You now take ref- 
uge in Christ's command to suffer little children to come 
to him, and I most gladly follow you there, and will cer- 
tainly drive you from its shelter. It occurs in Matt. 
xiz. 13. 

1. I remark that the parents brought the children 
that he might put his hand on them and pray. These 
pious Jews, then, did not know of any baptism of chil- 
dren, or they would have asked for it. 

2. The Apostles were not accustomed to see children 
brought to Christ f or any purpose; they therefore for- 
bade them. This proves irresistibly that infant bap- 
tism was unknown to the Apostles, else they would 
have said: "Come on good men, and we will baptize 
your babes." 

3. Jesus laid his hands on them, blessed them, and 
departed. Now, here was the best opportunity possible 
for baptizing the children of pious Jews, who desired 
all good things for their babes: yet Jesus departed and 
left them unbaptized. This transaction, then, is worth 
-ten thousand theories, in showing that it was not the 
will of Christ that babes should be baptized. I would 
risk the whole cause before a sworn jury, on this pas- 
sage alone. 

I shall now make a few remarks upon your boasted 
historical demonstration. 

1. I remark that the chain of historical testimony is 
not unbroken, as you affirm, but badly broken at the 
very beginning. The Shepherd of Hernias is a very 
i !y production, highly praised by Irenams, Tertullian 
and Origen. It contains a representation of baptism 
Under tl e of a tewer built upon the water; but 

nt--, but believers, and its three 
books contain no afiu don to infant baptism. Barna- 
bas, in the epistle, ascribed to him, which is certainly an 
early piece, ■•''•' ^^ no mention of infant baptism, but 
j&ys, "tfi&t t'ley put their trust .in the cross, and de~ 



LETTERS OX BAPTISM. 151 

scend into the water/' Thus the first link of your chain 
is badly broken; aiid we find the writers next after the 
Apostles using language subversive of your theory. 

2. The quotation you give from Justin Martyr can- 
not, by me, be taken as proof until you quote the place 
in his works where it can be found, and inform us what 
is the original word which you are pleased to translate 
infants. It was customary then, as it now is, in legal 
writings, to speak of boys and girls, in their minority, 
ps infants. Many o£ these, no d rv ubt, were baptized in 
early times. - I. must have the original words furnished, 
and see that they are rightly translated, before I can 
admit this i I ander says, baptism was ad- 
ministered at first only to adults, and that Irenaeus (not 
Justin Mai the first who made any allusion to 
infant ba 

3. Tertullian lived at the close of the second centu- 
ry. He wrote a b ainst Quintilla, a Montanist, 
in which he advises not to baptize children or minors, 
but to defer baptism, and regulate it according to the 
condition, the disposition, and the age of the party. 

"Letth ied," ays he, "and when they 

understand Ch hem profess it." On this I 

remark: First — That baptizing babes seems from this 
to have begun among the heretics, whom he is writing 
against, and evidently Tertulli&n's church at Carthage 
had at that time no such custom. We are, therefore, 
now at the fountain head, and see the very first begin- 
nings of infam 113. 

4. Origen \. n in the year 185, to which, if we 
add forty year the publication cf his writings, 
we are brought to the year 225, at which time, I am 

idy to allow, the baptism of infants to havebee: 
leiice. 

5. We now Gome to the Council of Carthage, in the 
ir 258. Concerning this body, you will indulge me 

with a few ks. 

1. This council of yours was composed of Af- 

ri ;an preachers, in n country so barbarous that, only a 

>rt time beibfe, -oh- bad to be prevented, by a 

decree of the Roman Empire, from burning their chil- 
dren in sacrifice to idtfls, and the inhabitants were cel- 
ling one another into slavery, even in Cyprian's day. 



152 LETTERS ON BAPTISM. 

2. That council advised one of their preachers named 
Rogation, to excommunicate his deacon because he 
would not implicitly obey his orders, and quoted in con- 
firmation of their sentence, Deuteronomy seventeenth, 
where God commands to put to death the man who 
shall not hearken to the priest. 

Does not that edict suit your taste as well as the in- 
fant baptism? 

3. Fidus, who had put the query to them about in- 
fants, also asks if babes were not too unclean to be 
kissed at their baptism before eight days old; and the 
sixty-six reverend fathers say no, and remark that, in- 
fants come crying into the world for baptism. 

4. This council decided that it was unlawful for a 
preacher to act m an executor or administrator, lest his 
priestly hands should be defiled. 

5. Exorcism to expel the devil and evil spirits was in 
full vogue at this time, and milk and honey were ad- 
ministered to all who were baptized. 

6. This same Cyprian, president of thecouncil, tells 
of a little girl who was so young that she could not 
speak, but being defiled by ideal meats, she refused to 
take the sacrament, and vomited out the holy bread 
and wine, when the deacon forced it into her mouth; 
so great was the power of God, says Cyprian. 

And certainly sir, you will not dare to deny that giv- 
ing the communion to babes was as common then as 
giving them baptism. 

7. This council remarks about baptism, that the grace 
of God should be refused to no one that is born; but 
you, sir, do not believe that grace is imparted through 
baptism. You should therefore have interrogated your 
own witnesses better, before bringing them forward, for 
I fear that by this time you are rather ashamed of the 
figure they cut; and I am certainly very glad that my 
peligiousvieWs can all be defended by keeping inside 
the New Testament. Whether these wise men baptis- 
ed babes, or exorcised them to drive the devil out, does 
not matter to mo a rush. My Bible ends with Revela- 
tions, and inside of that you have utterly failed to find 
.any baptism of infants. 

Your quotation from Pelagius wants a line in the 



LETTERS ON BAPTISM. 153 

middle, by which its sense is materially altered. lie 
affirms, concerning the promising the Kingdom of Heav- 
en to some without the redemption of Christ, that he 
had never heard of such a thing, and says, simply, that 
his supposed denial of infant baptism is a slander. 

I submit to my readers, whether I have not shown by 
twenty-six arguments, yet unanswered, that the Chris- 
tian church is not the same as the Jewish, and that in- 
fant baptism is not authorised by the law of circumcis- 
ion. That John's baptism applied to believing peni- 
tents only. That Christ's commission authorises only 
the baptism of believers. That children were brought 
to Christ, and he prayed for them, but did not baptize 
them. That the Apostles never alluded to infant 
baptism and did not practice it, even in the households. 
That Hernias, Barnabas and Clement, who lived next 
after the Apostles, make no mention of it in their 
writings — and, lastly, Dr. Grundy, I will say to you 
that your own authorities, the fathers, say that it came 
by traditon, and do not pretend to scripture authority 
for it. 

I shall now finish the historic argument about infant 
baptism. Dr. Grundy calls it a demonstration. He 
appeals to Justin; but Justin describes the baptism 
of believers, and Grundy put the word infants in, where 
the original had those instructed and obey. Was it a pi- 
ous forgery? He calls up Tertullian, and this old fa- 
ther bids infants wait until years of discretion. He 
next calls upon Origen and Cyprian and they prove it 
plainly, but alas! they prove too much for Dr. Grundy, 
as I now shall show. 

1. They immersed once at least, perhaps three times. 
See Barnabas' "go down into," Tertullian's "let down 
into water." Justin's, "Loutron" or both, as quoted by 
Lord King, 218. 

2. They put on Chrism ointment. Says Cyprian, 
the baptized must be anointed, that having received the 
Chrism, &c." Tertullian says, "the flesh is anointed, 
see King, page, 224. 

3. They signed them with the cross. Tertullian say 3 
also, "that the flesh is signed — "A signed forehead" says 
Cyprian — see King, as above. 



154 LETTERS ON BAPTISM. 

4. They confirmed by laying on hands to impart the 
Holy Ghost, and this immediately after baptism — see 
Tertullian, quoted by King. 

5. Tertullian says, "their unction was according to 
the Jewish Dispensation." — No doubt, it was. 

6. They consecrated the water first — see Justin Mar- 
tyr, who says, "the water being consecrated." King, 
page 217. Tertullian says, "the Holy Ghost comes 
from Heaven, moves upon and sanctifies the waters. — 
The water is cleansed and sanctified by the priest that 
it may wash away sins." — see King, page 217. 

7. They exorcised before baptism cr drove the devil 
out by breathing. See King, who quotes Clemens 
AJexandrinus, Crescens, Bishop of Cista, Lucius, Bish- 
op of Sebeste, and Dr. Grundy's Council of African 
Bishops. 

8. They administered milk and honey — Wall, page 
420, vol. 2. 

9. They taught that infants should be baptized, only 
if they were sick, and could not suck the breast, lest 
they might die and be damned, for want of Baptism. — 
See in proof, Gregory, Bishop of Constantinople, and 
decree of the Council of Girona, quoted by Robinson. 
See also the reasoning-* of all the fathers to prove that 
without baptism there was no salvation. 

Let us now repeat, and get hold of -the very order, of 
this grand ceremony of the Fathers.:; 

1. The person is exorcised. 

2. Then the water is consecrated. 

3. They are dipped. 

4. They are anointed. 

5. They are signed with the cross on the forehead. 

6. They are then confirmed, by giving the Holy 
Ghost. 

7. Milk and honey is administered. 

8. The supper is given, both bread and wine, to babes, 
crying little girls,and all. 

And this is the source from whence comes forth Dr. 
Grundy's glorious Scriptural sprinkling of babes. This 
is his historical demonstration, which shall forever justify 
and adorn his practice. Out of the Bible he flies to 
the fathers, and the fathers offer him these eight things; 



LETTERS OK BAPTISM. 155 

but he refuses to take from them any thing but their 
infants. 

Thus sinks the wretched attempt to get Presbyterian 
baptism out of the fathers. Dr. Grundy had better go 
back again to the circumcised infants and slaves of 
Abraham's household; or, better still, search and find it 
in the parchments that Paul left at Troas. It may pos- 
sibly be there, but in the New Testament it evidently 
is not. 

He notices me, he says, only to correct my errors, and 
as he has pretended to meet only two or three of my 
twenty-six arguments abuut circumcision, all the other 
twenty-three or twenty-four stand, by his default, as 
truths. So is it with Christ blessing babes, it goes by 
the board. No baptism in it. Search is being made, 
cradles are rummaged, but believing babes who heard 
the word have not yet been found. I charged that in- 
fant baptism sprang from the Judaising heresy which 
Paul resisted. But no defence is entered. Judgment 
goes by default. Dr. Grundy is too busy studying the 
Syriae alphabet to mind these trifles. 

I charged that infants were not included in Christ's 
commission to baptize believers, who had been taught. 
That, also, passes unanswered, or rather the commis- 
sion and all New 'Testament baptisms, are discarded 
as irregular, and shoved out of the way to make room 
for the order of God, in circumcising all the male in- 
fants of the Jews, at eight days old. 

HOW SHOULD BAPTISM BE ADMINISTERED? 

1. The Greek word, expressing the rite, means to 
immerse. It should therefore, be performed by immer- 
sion. The meaning of the word baptizo is the main 
point of controversy. On the question whether bapti- 
zo means to sprinkle, to pour, or to immerse, the whole 
issue hangs. Now how is the meaning of a word to be 
fully ascertained ? Dictionaries will tell in ordinary 
cases; but how did the authors of dictionaries find the 
meaning ? They found it from the use and practice of 
writers, in that language. Use then, practice, and pas- 
sages containing the word in question, are the ultimate 
authority by which disputed points must be settled. 



156 LETTERS ON BAPTISM. 

Dr. Grundy asserts that baptd has nothing to do with 
the subject. I am myself content to leave it out, and 
direct all our enquiries to ascertain what baptizo means. 
The whole compass of the Greek language in the use 
of this word is before us. The Evangelists and Apos- 
tles wrote in the Greek tongue, and baptizo as a Greek 
word, must be interpreted in accordance with the law3 
of the language from which it comes. I appeal to 
classical authors, to the Septuagint use of the word, 
and to the New Testament use. Classical authors. 
Porphyry page 282, as quoted by Carson, speaks of a 
sinner "as baptized up to his head in Styx, a river of 
hell. Heraclides Pontus as quoted by Gale, says "red 
hot iron is baptized (or dipped) into water whereby the 
heat is repelled." The dipping of hot iron is thus call- 
ed a baptism. 

Josephus' Jewish War, book 3d page 792, as quoted 
by Carson. Of people drowned in the lake, he says 
"they were baptized (that is sunk) with the ships them- 
selves." Hippocrates, page 532, from Carson, "shall 1 
not laugh at the man who baptizes (or sinks) his ship 
by overlading it." 

From these it becomes apparent that Greek authors 
used the word baptizo to express dipping, sinking and 
immersing. Now, Dr. Grundy is respectfully called up- 
on to join issue here, and to explain these passages up- 
on the principle of sprinkling or pouring. I next ap- 
peal to the Septuagint use. My readers are probably 
most of them aware, that by the Septuagint, we mean 
a translation of the Old Testament into the Greek lan- 
guage made by seventy-two Jews at Alexandria, and 
generally read and quoted from, by Christ and the 
Apostles. In fact it seems to have been the book from 
which the Apostles took their style and idiom, in writing 
Greek. 2d Kings, 5, 14. And Naman, the Syrian, 
went down and cbaptizato en to iordane (dipped himself 
in Jordan) seven times. Now, baptize here cannot 
mean pour, or sprinkle, en cannot mean with for to pour 
or sprinkle himself with the Jordan, would be an ex- 
pression too ridiculous for a moment's notice. 

Dr. Grundy says, baptizo means the application of 
water. Now, I venture the assertion that, the idea of 



LETTERS ON BAPTISM. 157 

water h not in the word Baptizo at all. In the classic- 
al authors it sometimes means to dip into honey, into 
oil, or into blood; aye even to plunge a sword into the 
human body. Josephus says the Galatiam- baptized a 
boy often in sport until they drowned him — did that 
mean that they applied water to him ? The same au- 
thor says again, that a man baptized a sword into hia 
own bowels. 

Polybius, a Greek author, applies the word to soldiers 
passing through a river: "They were baptized, he says. 
up to the breast;" that is, they were completely im- 
mersed in the river up to the breast? Diodorus Sicu- 
his, another Greek writer, says : "Many land animals 
baptized, that is, plunged in the river, perished." There 
is no room lor pouring or sprinkling here, most certain- 

Strabo says a man will not be baptized, that is, will 
not sink in the Lake Sirbon, because of the bituminous 
quality of the water. Hippocrates says : Hie breathed 
as persons breathe after being baptized?' Do persona 
breathe hard after being sprinkled? These are plain 
instances of the use which Greek writers made of the 
word baptize; and they should know, surely, the mean- 
ing of words in their own language. The sacred wri- 
ters took the word baptize out of the Greek language, 
and they either used it in its ordinary sense of immer- 
sion, or else they spake in riddles, and laid a snare for 
the unwary; which 1 presume no man will affirm. 

The above instances are enough to satisfy a candid 
enquirer, that the word means to immerse; then is the 
question settled — for Jesus says, "he that believeth and 
is baptized (that is, immersed) shall be saved." 

2. Immersion shown to be the primitive practice from 
the prepositions (en) in, and (eis), into. 

I argue that baptism was by immersion, from the 
fact, that .baptizo is usually followed by the preposition 
en (in). Our common version has rendered this prepo- 
sition by the term ?/////, which is certainly an improper 
rendering, and was evidently made to favor the cause 
of sprinkling, or at least to darken the evidence of im- 
mersion. I have examined numerous passages in the 
Greek language in which this preposition is urrod, and I 
14 



158 LETTERS ON BAPTISM. 

am ready to risk the opposition I may encounter by say* 
ing, that with can scarcely be said to be a proper mean- 
ing of the word at all. Liddel and Scott, the authors 
of our best Greek Lexicon, give its radical meaning as 
in, and admit under article 3d, what I am now saying, 
viz: that this original meaning can be traced in almost 
all cases of its use. In fact they do not give with as 
any meaning of the word at all. I think we have some 
reason to move for a new translation of the Scriptures, 
when a mistranslation so gross as rendering this word 
by with has been bound on us and our fathers, by trans- 
lators who were sprinklers themselves, and who distort- 
ed this word to favor their own practice, fo Mar&'s 4 
Gospel, 1 ch. 5v. it is said, they were baptized of Johh ! 
en (in) Jordan. Here the translators have rendered it 
rightly by the word in; but why did they Hot' do so air- 
ways, for it is often used? Yet elsewhere they have 
made it into with? The reason is etxvious. They saw 
that if the word was mistranslated in this passage the 
absurdity would be too glaring, for all men would see 
that to baptize with a river would be ridiculous. Nowy 
if this passage be rightly rendered in by them, then 
every passage in which en hudati is used, should have 
been translated in the same way, in ivuUr. Dr. George 
Campbell, the Presbyterian critic, condemns the trans- 
lators for not having given to this word its true and lit- 
eral meaning. 

John did not baptize with the Jordan, but in the Jor- 
dan; with a river will not pass tolerably. (See mark, i. 
5, en Iordanc.) In Acts 5, the expression is similar be- 
ing en Pncumati Hagio, (in the Holy Spirit;) since, then*, 
the baptism of John was in the Jordan, and in the wa- 
ter, the expression, en Pncumati Hagio, must describe an* 
immersion in the Spirit, and this is exactly verified by 
tin \v being surrounded by and filled with the Spirit. 

Dr. Grundy is successful in finding two cases in" 
which the Greek preposition en must be rendered with or 
by; but I did not deny that a few instances of this kind 
might be offered. 1 affirmed that, 1 was ready to risk 
the opposition I might encounter, by saying that, wit$ 
can scarcely be said to be a proper meaning of the 
word at all. Again, I remark out of Liddell and Scott, 
that, its original meaning, in, can be traced in almost all 
cases of its use. 



LETTERS ON BAPTISM. 159 

My language was intentionally guarded, because I 
wae fully aware that prepositions are somewhat vague 
and indefinite, in all languages. It U a very hard thing 
to find a rule about them that will not admit of some 
exceptions. 

I have taken the trouble of counting fron Schmidt?* 
Greek Concordance, the number of times that en is used 
in the Gospel of Matthew. I find the instances to be 
244, as near as I could come to the matter. Ju passing 
over them, I dotted those places in which a translator 
would likely Tender the en by with or by, as the instru- 
ment. There are twenty-four such passages in the 
244, or just ten per cent. Oi' the twenty-four, howev- 
er, only about nineteen require to be rendered with or 
by. The beauty of the others is increased by carrying 
the original idea of in through them. Thus the ex- 
pression u c7* pofa exovsici^ occurs three times, meaning 
by what power you do these tilings. Any person can 
see that the original idea of in is stil preserved, and 
heightens the force of these as thus paraphrased "\w 
the exercise of what power." Four times it is applied 
to the miracles wrought by Beelzebub and by the vSpir- 
it. In these cases tlie person working the miracle is 
supposed to be in. Divine or Satanic influence, and 
therefore strong. But I do not claim those that appear 
;to lean towards the other side, and my estimate of nine- 
teen instances in Matthew, while it does Mr. Grundy's 
cause ample justice, is certainly a larger proportion 
than I had supposed to exist. The result of the inqui- 
ry then is, that, in Matthew, en means in, among, on or 
M, at least 225 times, while in nineteen cases it may 
mean with or by. The primary idea, then, of in,eunon<r, 
has a weight of twelve to one against the unusual sig- 
nification with. Why, then, when baptism is spoken of, 
fiid our translators use with, while there was a weight of 
at least ten cases to one against its use ? 

A fundamental law of all translations is, that we 
should not assign a remote or secondary meaning to a 
word, provided that the primary or radical meaning will 
answer the purpose, and make good sense. If the pri- 
mary meaning will not answc r, we must then seek 
after a more remote sense, not sooner. 



160 LETTERS ON BAPTISE 

In the passages Dr. Grundy produces, we are driven 
by the law of necessity to depart from its usual sense, 
and render it by or with. Usually, however, there is no 
such necessity, en pole/no, (in war), en polci (in the city), 
en krono (in time), en thumo (in the mind), and en Imdati 
(in water.) are all alike in form, and can with propriety 
be similarly translated. Now, with the exception of 
Luke, who gives us merely the dative case and leaves 
the en to be supplied or understood, the sacred writers 
uniformly speak of baptizing, en hudati {in water). 

I will give examples of this precise form of express- 
ion: Matt. viii. 32, "The herd of swine perished en hu- 
dati (in the water)/' Now en certainly could not be ren- 
dered with here; yet it stands before the dative ease of 
hudo?% and when in multitudes of instances It stands be- 
fore the same case of the same word referring £o the 
water of baptism, why in the name of leason must it 
be darkened and made to speak differently? No rea- 
son under heaven can be assigned, except that the per- 
version was accomplished to serve a party purpose and 
sustain sprinkling. 

I will now present three examples, of the use of the 
preposition eis (into) which ought of themselves to settle 
this whole question of immersion — Matt. xvii. 15: A 
lunatic oft falleth into the fire and eis liudor (into the 
water. 

Next, see Mark i. 9; Jesus was baptized (or dipped) 
by John eis Iordancn (into the Jordan). See again, Acts, 
viii. 38. They went both eis hudor into the water, both 
Philip and the Eunuch. Now in these three places the 
forms of expression are precisely alike, and if the mad- 
man did not fall at the icatcr, but into the water, then 
Jesus was dipped into the Jordan, and the Eunuch was 
taken down into the water. 

In his last letter be marches boldly up to my argu- 
ment derived from en Jordanc (in Jordan,) and translates 
it at or near by the Jordan. Very well, Dr. Grundy, that 
is just as I expected. But, now, pray when that 
same preposition en is applied to Pneumati Hagio, will 
you accept from me your definition of en and say, "Ye 
ahall be baptized at or near by the Holy Spirit?" The 
preposition in both cases is the same. If it means at 



LETTERS ON BAPTISM. 161 

the Jordan it means at or near by the Holy Spirit, or if 
it means with the Holy Ghost, then it means xoith the 
Jordan. As both these are ridiculous, I say that it 
must mean in the Jordan and in the Holy Ghost. Thus 
uniformity of translation is preserved and the primary 
meaning is given to the word in both cases. 

I argue that the phrases employed of going down 
into, and coming up out of, the water, greatly favor 
the idea of immersion. Phillip and the Eunuch did 
not stop at the water — they first came cpi (unto) the 
water — they then went eis (into) it. Epidu the 36tl; 
verse, carries them to the water, and eis, being a 
stronger expression, must carry them into it, for they 
have no where else to go. But, Doctor, I suppose you 
will not admit immersion even when both have gone 
into the water. Whatiblly to suppose wise men would 
walk into water to sprinkle one another. If Pedo-Bap- 
tists prefer to make Philip and the Eunuch act like idi- 
ots rather than admit immersion here, they can do so. 
if they please, but I had rather immerse than do it. 

The places chosen by John for baptizing, indicate 
immersion. John baptized in Jordan, and then select- 
ed Enon, because there was much water there. Many 
streams there, say our opponents. What silliness ! ! ! 
Was not one stream as good as a thousand, for every 
purpose except fertilizing the country? 

3. The figurative use of the word Baptize, The. fig- 
urative application of the word baptize positively and un- 
equivocally proves it to be immersion — "I have a baptism 
tobebaptized with, says Jesus," alluding to his sufferings, 
Were these sufferings only a sprinkling or a pouring, 
or was the Lord covered and overwhelmed for the time 
being, with afflictions? "Baried with him by baptism 
into death, says Paul." This is plain enough Bap- 
tism is a figurative burial. What then, will our oppo- 
nents do with this passage? Why, the case is a des- 
perate one, and something desperate must be done or 
the cause is lost. They will even attempt to dig the 
Savior out of the tomb, and deny in their infatuation: 
that Jesus was properly and literally buried; forgetting 
that he himself had said, "the Sota of man will be three 
days in the heart of the earth. 
14* 



162 



LETTERS ON BAPTISM. 



Romans, 6: 4, "we are buried with him (Christ) by 
baptism into death." 

Colossians, 2: 12, "buried with him in baptism where- 
in also ye are risen with him." 

"We have been planted, says Paul, in the likeness of 
his death;" Rom. 6: 5. 

Now, when we are buried with him, is it by sprink- 
ling, or does the pouring bury us, or would washing or 
popping entomb us? No! No! We are buried by be- 
ing put into the water. Are we planted into the like- 
ness of his death by sprinkling? Is pouring or wash- 
ing like planting? We plant a tree when we put it in 
the earth; so we .are put into the water. Is 4;he rising 
from sprinkling like Christ's resurrection? Do the babes 
rise from pomring "to walk in newness of life?" Does 
not Dr. Grundy say that Paul was baptized standing 
up? In this there was no likeness to a resurrection. 
How was he raised to walk in newness of life if he 
was baptized standing up? Fie! Fie! If I had no 
Christianity at all, 1 could never dishonor my own intel- 
Sect by maintaining such a weak, untenable cause. 
Here I tak? my stand. Let Dr. Grundy meet me here, 
or cry quarter. Baptism is a burial; but Dr. Grundy's 
sprinkling is no burial. Baptism is a planting, but 
sprinkling is no planting. Baptism has a likeness to 
resurrection in it; but in sprinkling there is no resur- 
rection. All the ingenuity under heaven can never 
erase immersion from these pages. See again, Heb. 
10: 22, "having oar hearts sprinkled from an evil con- 
science and our bodies washed with pure water." Here 
the change of mind is called a sprinkling of the heart 
— and baptism is described by washing the body. 

The Doctor thinks there is no reference to water bap- 
tism in Paul's expression of buried, &c; but only to 
the baptism of the Spirit. Now, I affirm that, the term 
baptism of the Spirit is never applied by the sacred 
writers to any transactions, except those of Pentecost 
and the house of Cornelius. No other Christians have 
ever been immersed in sounding, rushing, fiery emblems 
of the spirit, so far as 1 can learn from my Bible. The 
first fruits only were sealed with this miraculous -bap- 
tism, and the whole after harvest .became thereby holy. 



LETTERS ON BAPTISM. 163 

God promised that his Spirit should dwell in all be- 
lievers, but that could never properly be called a bap- 
tism; and it is never so called in the New Testament. 
It must be in the Apocrypha that Dr. Grundy learns 
that the church at Rome ever ha# a baptism of the 
Spirit. 

But I will grant for a moment, for argument's sake, 
that Paul is speaking of a baptism of the Spirit. He 
will then contradict directly the Doctors labored proof, 
that the baptism of the Spirit was by pouring. 

Suppose, Paul says, "they are buried by spirtual 
baptism inta death." Does that burial take place by 
pouring. Pouring is not burying, I suspect. What re- 
semblance has pouring to a spiritual planting? Js 
pouring like to a spiritual resurrection? 

Dr. Bloomfield, in his Greek Testament; says: 

"We have been thus buried, in the waters of baptism. 
There is a plain allusion to the ancient custom of bap- 
tism by immersion." 

Whitby, in his Commentary, says, "we are buried 
with Christ in baptism, by being buried under .water." 
Whitby and Bloomfield were Episcopalians. Mack- 
night, the Presbyterian, on this verse says, "Christ sub- 
mitted to be buried under the water by John, and to be 
raised out of it again as an emblem of his future death 
and resurrection." Even John Calvin, on the passage, 
says, "the Apostle proves that Christ destroys sin in his 
people from the effect of baptism, by which we are ini- 
tiated into the faith of the Messiah." It is strange, ex- 
claims Grundy, that I cannot sec that thereds.no allu- 
sion here to water baptism. Is it not equally strange, 
then, £hat the eminent critics, Bloomfield, Whitby, 
Macknight, and even Calvin, could see an aJlusion to 
water baptism. How did they see it if there be none 
there? None are so blind as those who will not see, 
and that I fear, is Dr. Grrundy's case. Dr. Grundy 
thinks the phrase, put on Christ, cannot refer to water 
baptism, or it will make water save us. Indeed! The 
eminent Beza says, about putting on Christ, "that this 
phrase seems to proceed from the ancient custom of 
plunging the adult in baptism." Did Beza teach water 
salvation? I presume not. Dr. Grundy saya "if 1 



164 LETTERS ON BAfcTISSf. 

have a literal burial I must have a literal planting. 
Yes, the planting is jtist as literal as the burial. Nei- 
ther of the rn is literal. Bury is used here figuratively, 
and so is plant; but to justify a figure, there must be a 
resemblance in the figure to the thing signified. Bury 
is the figure, baptism the substance; but he destroys 
the figure, and nullifies its propriety by taking away 
the fact on which it rests. 

I will close by quoting the paraphrase of the illustri- 
onsJ. Locke on this verse. "We did own some kind 
of death by being buried under water." Dr. Grundy's 
exposition of this passage leaves the figurative terms 
bury, plant , put on, &c, without any meaning, point or 
propriety; and it is contradicted by the general voice 
of critics and commentators. 

I now call attention to two passages of Scripture 
which I shall re-translate as literally as I can. — Ephe- 
sians, v. 26: "that Christ might consecrate or sanctify 
his church having cleansed it by a loutro hudatos (bath 
of water), through word." 

I need not say that a bath of water through the gos- 
pel, is a pointed description of immersion. Again, see 
Titus, iii. 5: Acording to his mercy he saved us, by (a 
bath of regeneration) loutrou paliggenesias and the re- 
newing of the Holy Ghost. 

That the bath of regeneration means baptism here, 
there can be no doubt. It is a bath taken at the time 
of our reformation, and taken publicly to declare and 
attest it. It is similar in meaning exactly to John's 
phrase, baptism of repentance. As in this last pas- 
sage, the bath of regeneration, is set in opposition to 
the renewing of the Holy Ghost; we must all see and 
admit that Paul did not attribute a change of heart to 
baptism. The heart is changed only through the Gos- 
pel and the Spirit. 

4, Immersion shown to be the practice in Christen- 
dom for at least seven hundred years after the Apos- 
tles. 

Dr. Grundy, conscious of having little help in the 
Bible, has introduced church history and the fathers. I 
was contented to have tested the matter by inspiration 
alone; but as he^has presented these men to bear witness 



LETTERS ON BAPTISM. 165 

* bout infants, I shall cross question them about sprink- 
ling and immersion. Justin Martyr. How do you bap- 
tize? He answers, "we bring them to some place 
where there is water and they are washed in the name 
of the Father, i&c, and this bath or washing, is called 
Xhe enlightening. Tertullian; what say you? He says: 
"we come to the water; make a profession, &c. Then 
we arc three times plunged into the water, when taken 
up, we taste a mixture of milk and honey.'* What 
says Origen? Recalls baptism a iaver. (See Wall, vol. 
i. page 105.) These witnesses Dr. Grundy introduced 
to the public of Mason county. They cry immersion. 
Will lie now annihilate his own witnesses or abide by 
their decision. The question is not whether pouring 
might do, as Cyprian says, if one were in bed dying 
and could not stand up. Dr. Grundy opened this dis- 
cussion by pronouncing immersion unscriptural and in- 
jurious. Now his witnesses who lived near the apos- 
tles say we immerse. O consistency! thou art a jewel. 

Let us hear a few more of these men who lived in 
the earliest age. The Apostolical Constitutions say 
baptism is a representation of Christ's death. Water 
is that wherein we are buried. St. Chrysostom, u To be 
dipped and plunged into water and then rise out is a 
symbol of descent into the grave," &e. 

Barnabas says, "We descend into the water full of 
sins and defilement and come up out of it," &c. The 
Greek Church says in her rubric: u iVt each compellation 
putting the person down into the water and raising 
him up again." 

Now, as the Greeks speak Romaic Greek, the same 
language merely altered by time in wdaich the New Test- 
ament was written, they are of all people, best qualifi- 
ed to decide what the word baptize* means. 

I had no need of these authorities. I value them but 
little. The Bible has enough for me; but I will not 
stand coolly by and see Dr. Grundy appealing to the 
infants of the Fathers, and then scorning and rejecting 
their immersion. 

He is very fond of quoting Dr. Stuart's authority, and 
boasts of having the book. Stuart is a learned and 
candid man, who while advocating sprinkling concede* 



W>6 LETTERS ON BAPTISM. 

much to us; and I will now show these concessions to 
my readers. 

Dr. Stuart after quoting a large number of passages 
in which bapto and baptizo are used in classical au- 
thors, comes to the conclusion : "That it is impossible 
to doubt that the words bapto and baptizo, have in the 
Greek classical writers, the sense of dip, plunge, im- 
merge, sink,&c." 

Of Naaman, the Syrian, he says "he cbaptizato, plu$- 
ged himself 7 times into the river Jordan. 

Dr. Stuart admits that Christ's baptism into suiier- 
ings, means his being overwhelmed with sufferings; and 
and in illustration of figurative language he quotes 
the psalm, in which Messiah is represented as sinking 
into the deep waters. 

Here, then, acknovvledgedly, is one case where bap- 
tism into sufferings can neither mean that Christ was 
sprinkled with them, nor poured with them — he was 
overwhelmed and surrounded with them— he sunk in 
them. Who dares deny immersion here? Dr. Stuart 
examines the testimony of the early fathers about im- 
immersion, and comes to the following result: That, 
"the shepherd of Hennas had said, 'the seal is water, 
into which men descend/ '" That Justin Martyr had 
said, "They were led down to the bath or washing 
place." That Tertullian had said, "They were let down 
into the water and dipped between the utterance of a 
few words." 

That Chrysostrom said, "to be baptized and to sub- 
merge, then to emerge, is a symbol of descent to the 
grave, and ascent from it." That Gregory Nazi arizen said, 
"Coming into water the kindred element of earth, we 
hide ourselves in it, as the Savior did in the earth." 
Cyril said, "he that goes down into water and is bap- 
tized, is surrounded by it on all sides, so the Apostles 
were baptized all over hy the Spirit." 

I will now quote the result to which Dr. Stuart, a Pedo 
Baptist, comes, from this full enquiry into church history 
concerning the mode of baptism. "It is," says Angus- 
tin, (Deukw. 7, p 216) "a thing made out," viz: "the an- 
cient practice of immersion. "So," says Stuart, "all 
the writers who h^ve thoroughly investigated this sub- 




LETTERS ON BAPTISM. 1 1> 7 

ject conclude." I know," says he. "of no one usage of 
ancient times which seems to be wbn ly and cer- 

tainly made out. I cannot see !iow it is ible for 

any candid man who examine* di ay tie- 

Stuart, page 'Hit). Jf Stuart be light about this point 
of church history, we must conclude either that Dr. 
Grundy has not thoroughly investigated the sub i ct, or 
that be is not . and c< ntly denies it. 

One may naturally feel curious ai . .these 

admissions to know how Dr. Stuart could p: and 

defend, sprinkling as baptism. The reply is i 
He labors in his hook to show that the circ .aces 

of some of the New Testament baptisms, render im- 
mersion improbable; he thinks bap ote 
washing in general, and he em] is in- 
arguing that the mode of baptism is tentj 
and that it may change with the climate. now 
proceed to give some quotations out history, 
showing when and by whom sprinkle I intro- 
duced, and I must ask my read member 
that. Dr. WasH is a Pedo Baptist, an ink- 

n whese . Grun- 

dy has been placing his main reliance discus- 

sion. Dr. Wall say-. y way 

was to baptize by imj or di] - -on, 

whether it were infant g an into 

the water.*' Wall, vol. 2, p. 392. I sthat 

the exception to this in early ti e of 

sick persons who had water poured in bed. 

and that no clinic or person Id after- 

wards be ordained a minister or priest. 

He then says, pa I, that Fiance was the first 

country in the world, where baptism by a ties a n \. as used 
ordinarily, to persons in health, an iy of 

administering it. lie Bays that, from France it spread 
(but not till a good while after) in nanny. 

Spain, and last of all int and. He then quotes 

John Calvin prescribing a form ol fiie sa- 

craments. Thus: "the Minister of Baptism | ater 

on the infant. Baying, I baptize thee. &c. W all then 
adds: "There had been some synods in I that 

had spoken of affusion withe -ion 



1 T 88 LETTERS ON BAPTISM. 

at all, that being the common practice; but for an of- 
fice, or liturgy of any church, this is, I believe, the first 
in the world, that prescribes affusion absolutely." I 
cannot now help believing, that in the judgment of all 
impartial men, I have gained my cause. I have shown 
by various proofs that the word baptizo means to im- 
merse. I have shown that immersion was undoubtedly 
practiced all over the world till the seventh century or 
later. That the practice of sprinkling first began in 
France, from love of delicacy, and that John Calvin, 
the founder of the Presbyterian church, was the first 
person in the world who authoritatively ordained pour- 
ing alone as a baptism. 

These things I have proved too by Pedo Baptists, 
whose learning and truthfulness Dr. Grundy dare not 
question. If this point of immersion then be not prov- 
ed, I shall despair of ever being able to bring any dis- 
puted question to a decision. 

5. 1st Reply to Dr. Grundy's Allegation that, ike pour^ 
ing out of the Holy Spirit teas the Baptism of the Spirit. 
God, you say, has settled the meaning of baptizo dis- 
tinctly and beyond a doubt. 

Surely this will do — no man can question th<^ word of 
God. 1 must submit at discretion, "ye shall be baptized 
with the Holy Ghost," and God said, "I will pour out 
my Spirit — therefore baptism is pouring. 

This is the argu neat. Now, mark well how truth tri- 
umphs over even this invincible reasing of my oppo- 
nent. "Ye shall be baptized," says Jesus; now put in 
the word pour instead of baptize in this passage and 
try its effect — "ye shall be poured with the Holy 
Ghost." 

Ye shall be poured, that is, the persons shall be 
poured. Now, sir, I have heard of pouring water, pouring 
oil, pouring spirits, but never of pouring persons before. 
Yet ye, (viz: the persons) is the subject of the passive 
verb, and consequently , must be the object of the same verb 
when made active. IX baptism and pouring be synony- 
mous in these passages, then it will read when changed 
into the active voice, thus: "I will pour ont with the Holy 
Ghost." It cannot be to pour upon .hem, for it does not 
Bav > y ou shall be baptized (upon), but it must be to 



LETTERS ON BAPTISM. 169 

pour tliein. Now, at the risk of being called a school 
boy, I will affirm that there never was such a form of 
speech as to pour people with a thing, in any language 
used by Jew or Gentile, learned or unlearned, because 
it is absolute nonsense; and all languages, even the 
most barbarous, are formed upon principles of co i m 
sense. But, I will repeat my argument in a form bet- 
ter adapted to the eye of the scholar. The Greek verb 
engkeo, pour, Dr. Grundy would make synonymous with 
baptizo. Xow, baptizo regularly governs an accusative of 
the person — : as, he baptized such a man. Engkeo, on the 
contrary, never did, and never can, govern the accusa- 
tive of a person. No man could say he poured a per- 
son: the accusative following it must be the fluid and 
not the person. If, then, with Dr. Grundy, we make 
baptizo to mean pour, the persons must have been 
poured, not the spirit, for it was certainly the persons 
who were baptized. I shall now make a few quota- 
tions from the ~Ne\v Testament, and as Dr. Grundy de- 
fines baptizing to be pouring, I shall insert the word 
pour instead of baptize, and let all men judge of the 
effect: 

"And were poured of John in Jordan," — Mark 1: 5. 
"I have negd to be poured of thee." 

Jesus, when he was poured, went up out of the wa- 
ter. And with the pouring that I am poured withal, 
shall ye be poured.' 5 

"The multitude came to be poured." "What cloth 
hinder me to be poured." "Arise and be poured and 
thy sins." "As many as were poured into 
Jesus, were poured into his death." "And were poured 
into in the cloud." "Buried with him by pour- 

ing into death." 

I snail now invert the matter, and put baptize into a 
few pas; ages where pour occurs, and see how this theo- 
ry works: 

Psalm — 42: 4, When I baptize, out (pour out) my 
soul before him. 

Jere niah — 14: 16, I will baptize (pour) their wicked- 
ness upon til- 
Rev. — 15: 1, I will baptize out (pour out) vials of wrath. 

15 



lf$ LETTERS ON BAPTISM. 

Two points then are settled forever. 1st. That pour 
cannot be substituted for baptize; and, 2d > That bap 
tize cannot be substituted for pour. 

Let us now come to Pentecost and keep in full view 
Dr. Grundy's argument. It is this: That the baptism 
was the pouring, and the pouring was the baptism. 
Now if the pour be equivalent in these passages to the 
baptize, all common sense will say that the one word 
can stand for the other. 

Take Acts, 1: 5, Ye shall be baptized with or in the 
Holy Ghrost. Ye shall be poured with or in the Holy 
Ghost. Such is the beautiful result of God's definition, 
as given by Dr. Grundy. 

See again, Acts 2: 14, 16, I will pour out my spirit. 
Dr. Grundy's theory demands baptize — I will baptize 
out my spirit. 

The Pentecost transaction evidently consisted of dif- 
ferent successive parts. 1st. A pouring out from tfee 
heavens. 2d. A rushing of the spirit, as manifested by 
its emblems, into the house. 3d. A filling of the house, 
and overwhelming the Apostles in spiritual influence; 
so that they were filled with t^e Holy Ghost. 

Now, the real question is to which of all these the 
word baptize refers. It cannot refer to the pouring, for 
this would represent the Almighty as baptizing his own 
spirit, instead of the Apostles. It cannot refer to the 
rushing, for no man pretends that baptism should be by 
rushing. It must then refer to the fact, that the Apos- 
tles were surrounded by that spirit which filled the house, 
and by which they were said to be filled. 

I now remark that figures of different modes are ap- 
plied to God's impartation of his Spirit. No bodily ac- 
tion or ordinance could possibly symbolize these meta- 
phors, or represent the mode by w T hich God gave his 
spirit. God's spirit is represented by very different fig- 
arcs, as dew stilling, as rain falling, as wind blowing, 
as water poured, as a well springing up, as a river flow- 
ing to make glad the City of God. Here, then, distil- 
ling, raining, blowing, pouring, springing up, and flow- 
ing, are modes entirely different and even contrary, for 
springing up is the reverse of descending. Could any 
ordinance under heaven represent then all these figures 



LETTERS ON BAPTISM. 171 

applied to the spirit's importation? Not one. We 
might as well try to make an ordinance to represent 
God in the act of creating the world as the mode by 
which God gives his spirit. 

Further, the ordinance of baptism was in existence 
four years before Pentecost. It was an immersion, as 
John's camel's hair garment shows, as the meaning of 
baptizo shows, as the en Iordane (in Jordan) and eis Ior- 
dane (into Jordan) shows, as the much water at Enon 
shows, as their going down into and coming up out of 
shows, as Jesus' baptism into sufferings shows, and 
Paul's baptism a burial shows. Now, with this immer- 
sion, thus proved to have been the practice, and admit- 
ted by nearly all the scholars in Christendom; was it 
now changed at Pentecost and made into a pouring to 
suit the pouring of the spirit? Who can believe it! No 
man — who still keeps in his right mind. 

Further, on the same principle it must change often, 
and be made a blowing, a running like water, a rising 
up like a well, or ejse it jpever can be like the meta- 
phors applied to the spirit. 

The pouring out of the spirit was necessary, in order 
to a baptism in the spirit. 

Water must be poured into a baptistry or bath, or cis- 
tern before there can be an immersion. The house 
whcra they were sitting was empty of spirit or emblem, 
until the pouring out took place. After the house was 
filled with the spirit, they were surrounded on all sides 
by it — penetrated with its light-giving power — filled 
with it as a sponge is with water, and thus baptized in 
the Spirit. 

2d. Reply to Dr. Grundy's allegation, That Saul, of 
Tarsus, was baptized standing up, and therefore sprink- 
led. Dr. Grundy says, "the record shows that he was 
baptized iipi the house, and states that he was baptized 
standing. Upon the correctness of this translation and 
version of Paul's baptism, I am willing to stake my rep- 
utation as a scholar, and will cheerfully be immersed if 
I can be shown to be mistaken. "He w r as baptized 
standing up." (Greek, anastas.) 

You now, sir, stake your reputation as a scholar upon 



172 



LETTERS ON BAPTISM, 



the accuracy of your translation of anastas cbapiisthe — 
baptized standing up. I accept your challenge. I will 
hold you to your offer. I mean to show that to be a mis - 
translation or sink my reputation in the attempt. It 
should be translated exactly as it is done in our Testa- 
ment, by the circumlocution of the imperfect tense, he 
arose; but a literal, not an idiomatic one, would be hav- 
ing arisen. 

I will now give passages in which the participle anas- 
tas occurs in the New Testament, and I will give the 
version of our common Bibfe in one column, and the 
version which Dr. Grundy proposes in another column, 
and let all men judge whether the Doctor's emenda- 
tions will improve our Bible. I pledge my honor that 
in all these passages anastas— having arisen — is the 
same in tense and form precisely as in the passage that 
he proposes to new translate: 



Passage. 

Matthew, 9; 9. 

Mark, 10, 50 

Luke 4; 38. 

Luke, 6; 8. 

Luke, 15; 20. 

Luke, 22, 45. 

Luke, 24; 12. 

Acts, 9, 11. 

Acts, 10; 13. 
Acts, 10; 20; 

Acts, 22; 10. 

Acts, 9; 13. 



Common Bible. 

He arose and followed 
liim. 

He rose and came to Je- 
sus. 

He arose and entered 
into Simon's house. 

He arose and stood forth 

He arose and came to 
his father. 

When he rose up from 
prayer. 

Then Peter arose and 
ran. 

Arise and go into the 
street called Straight. 

Arise Peter, kill and eat. 

Arise/ therefore, and 
get thee down. 

Arise' and go into Da- 
mascus. 

He 'arose' and was bap- 
tized. 



Dr. Grundy's proposed 
new version. 

He followed him standing up. 

He came siandiug up to Jesus 

He entered into Simon's house, 

standing up. 
He stood forth standing up. 

He came standing up to his fa- 
ther. 

When from prayer he Y> r as stand- 
ing up. 

Peter ran standing up. 

Go into the street called Straight, 
standing up. 

Peter kill and eat, standing up. 

Therefore get thee down, stand- 
ing up. 

Go into Damascus, standing up. 

He was baptized standing up. 



I have thus put it in the power of every school boy 
who owns a Greek Testament, to decide the point, and 
aee that Dr. Grundy's literary reputation is forever for- 
feited. He selected the passage himself — he amended 



LETTERS ON BAPTISM. 173 

it, and blusteringly staked his reputation upon it. His 
translation is utterly wrong — wholly inadmissible, and I 
claim the forfeit. I will now inform you, Doctor, how 
all this comes to be so, and in doing so, I will give you 
a lesson in Greek grammar, which you evidently did 
not learn at College, or it would have saved you from 
this ludicrous mistake. 

Anastas is the second aorist participle, and must be 
translated with reference to past time. Raving arisen 
will do very well as a translation; but the full force of 
the aorist tense can only be given by using a tense of a 
verb as when lie arose. See, for this fact, Fisk's Greek 
Grammar, Anthon's 12th edition, bottom of page 91 
and top of page 92, where this law of translation is 
laid down. 

The cause of immersion, however, needed no Greek 
to sustain it here. Paul could have been sprinkled or 
poured upon while lying on his couch. Your infants 
are generally sprinkled while lying with their faces up- 
turned, but our converts have all to stand up in order to 
be immersed. I could thus use your own criticism to 
sustain my cause, but I forbear. 

Upon a review of these passages it will be perceived 
that this is, without exception, the most ridiculous and 
nonsensical translation that was ever bred in the brains 
of simpletons. Yet, is it not Dr. Grundy's own work? 
He knew nothing of its merits; but swaggeringly took 
it from Cleland or Rice. This argument is given at full 
length by Dr. Cleland, in a book called Strictures on 
Campbellism. Dr. Cleland says, anastas is not a loco- 
m6tive word. He thinks it will not let Saul leave the 
spot; but pins him there, till he is sprinkled. Goodness! 
what a world of learning the man had! Did anastas 
hold the prodigal when running to his father? o- Mary, 
when fleeing to the hill country? Did it hold Jesus in 
one place, when they were thrusting him out of the 
city, or leading him away to Pilate? A parrot might 
prate about Greek with just as ■ much good sense as 
this Rev. Cleland, D. D. I assert fearlessly, after now 
having brought forward the passages, that anaslas sim- 
ply declares that Paul arose; but whether he we:.t te$ 

15* 



174 LETTERS ON BAPTISM* 

yards, or ten miles, or was haptized standing, lying 
down, or head foremost, it affirms not. He got out of 
his sick bed, that it depones, but nothing more. 

My conclusion is, that Saul could have peen sprink- 
led in bed very conveniently; but that immersed in bed 
he could not be, and therefore he had first to arise. 
The case in Greek or English testifies on my side. 

I have thus answered the enquiry made at the head 
of this article, by showing that, in classical and Septua- 
gint use, the word baptizo denotes immersion. The prep- 
ositions accompanying it, and places selected, greatly 
confirm this view of the case. 

Its figurative use shows that the sacred writers un- 
derstood by it, an immersion, or covering of the body. 

Church history proves that, immersion was the con- 
Btant practice for at least five or six centuries after the 
Apostles 

And I have replied in full to the main arguments urg- 
ed by Dr. Grundy, in favor of pouring or sprinkling. 
May the reader be guided into all truth and finally en- 
ter a heaven of happiness. 



SPEECH OF JOHN YOUNG, 

Of Metysvillc, Ky. } in reply to Rev. S. J. Henderson, at 
the Bible Convention, Memphis, Tennessee. 

Mr. President : With your permission, I will offer 
the following resolutions : 

1st. Resolved, That the address delivered this morn- 
ing to this Convention, by the Rev. Mr. Henderson, of 
the Methodist Episcopal church, furnishes additional 
evidence of the necessity of a revision of the English 
scriptures, therefore, 

2d. Resolved, That the Rev. Mr. Henderson be re- 
quested to furnish a copy of his speech, to be published 
with the proceedings of this body. 

Mr. President, the addresses thus far made to this 
Convention, have been, most properly, the result of 
careful previous preparation. My task, however, does 
not afford me time for such forethought; and I will trust 
to your indulgence to overlook such inaccuracies of 
phraseology, as may arise from the unpremeditated na- 
ture of my reply. I propose to review the arguments 
offered against our proposed revision of the English 
Scriptures, and knowing how valuable the time of this 
Convention is, I shall study brevity and consume as lit- 
tle of it as possible. 

Brother Henderson very properly speaks in the lan- 
guage of Christian humility when coming before this 
meeting. He talks of one "so obscure as himself," and 
very candidly informs you that though he could work 
his way slowly to the meaning of the Greek Testament, 
he yet will not claim the possession of full classical 
scholarship. Now, sir, considering that New r Testa- 
ment Greek is very easily learned, and forms only an 
introduction to the Greek language, it will be seen that 
brother Henderson's claims to scholarship are not of a 
very imposing character. 

Much more scholarship than this is surely requisite to 
enable a man to meet or even attempt to meet the ar- 



176 SPEECH OF JOHN YOUNG. 

guments that have been already offered in favor of a 
revision. Brother Henderson will therefore pardon us 
if we refuse to defer to his superior judgment in the 
premises, since upon his own admission, he does not 
possess such knowledge of the original languages of 
the sacred writings as would add weight to his decision 
of this important questien. While listening to the eu- 
logies which he pronounced upon King James' transla- 
tors, I was forcibly reminded of the ignorance of cer- 
tain villagers, who entertained & very high idea of the 
learning of their schoolmaster. 

"And among them still the wonder giew, 
That one small head could cany all he knew." 

We are wonderfully prone to form high ideas of the 
men of a former generation, upon the same principal, I 
suppose, that the earth was peopled by giants in ancient 
times, and by which was accomplished the labors of 
Hercules and the hero Gods- 

Brother Henderson's humility would be highly com- 
mendable, if it was exhibited as fully in actions as in 
words. But ala?< for the weakness of human nature, — 
the humble man having delivered himself of all humili- 
ty in the peroration of his discours-e, speedily ascends 
the throne of judgment, and gravely decides that this 
body is incompetent to the work of revising the com- 
mon verson of the Bible. Who, sir, can tell all the ex- 
tent and mysteries of creation, except that infinite 
mind that planned the fabric of the universe? How is 
brother Henderson certain that we are incompetent to 
the task that is be before us? 

Has he numbered up our learned men — investigated 
fully the curriculum taught in our colleges — and ascer- 
tained precisely the extent of our Greek and Hebrew 
erudition? 

All this he has not done, and confessedly cannot do; 
yet he can affirm that a learning of which he knows so 
little, will not suffice to correct the errors of our com- 
mon version. 

Still more curious and sudden is his transformation 
from a man who can find out the meaning of the Greek 
Testament by the help of a dictionary, into a marvel- 



oPEECII OF JOHN YOUNG. 177 

eras scholar, who is able to bring Hebrew roots from 
the Arabic, and pronounce dogmatically between He- 
brew with, and Hebrew without the vowed points. He 
alleges that we cannot translate the Scriptures in the 
present day, because we do not read and teach the He- 
brew language without the vowel points. Let me here 
remark, that Hebrew was originally written main- 
ly with consonants, and that points were added 
about the fifth century for the purpose of fixing the eu- 
phony and pronunciation of the language, which be- 
came arbitrary after the Hebrew ceased to be a living 
tongue. Brother Henderson's argument would carry 
the implication that those who learn the Masoretic He- 
brew, are unqualified to understand the language in its 
primitive state. This is surely a new discovery, and 
leads to a conclusion most trememendous in its conse- 
quences. If this, sir, be true, then the addition of small 
marks like commas, destroyed the original language 
and our colleges arc all totally mistaken in supposing 
that they are teaching the Hebrew language, when they 
are teaching only a spurious counterfeit. 

Truly, this Dr. Henderson is a wonderful man — he has 
not learned much himself, but he has studied just 
enough to know, that Hebrew is untaught in the pres 
eni day, and our learned men have become all self-de 
ceived by adopting a counterfeit language. Let me re- 
lieve my brother from this slough of despond, by assur- 
ing him that if he will thoroughly learn this language 
with the points, he will thereby know every whit that 
was contained in ancient Hebrew. The addition of 
vowel points does not destroy but confirm and render 
more definite the language, especially in its pronuncia- 
tion. Like the sails of a boat they may be used or 
thrown aside, at pleasure. We say emphatically that 
Hebrew, in its ancient state, can be fully understood by 
every man who becomes competently acquainted with 
the language as taught in the present day. The argu- 
ment, then, rests on nothing butj the rea-oner's ignor- 
ance of facts, and misapprehension of their bearing. 

Again, he charges that we do not teach incur schools 
Helenistic Greek, such as the Greek of the Scriptures; 



s- 



178 SPEECH OF JOHN YOUNG 

but only classic Greek. Truly, our scholars in the 
present day must, in his estimation, have fallen into 
most lamentable mistakes!! What a mercy it is that 
he has risen to corect their errors! 

Let him cry aloud and lift up his voice like a tmrnpet 
in this matter. If we really do not learn to read Hel- 
enestic or New Testament Greek; it is surely high time 
to know it. It is scarcely necessary that I should 
gravely argue on the inaccuracy of such an assumption 
— his very statement seems a confutation. 

The argument is built upon three separate errors. — 
First, it erroneously assumes that New Testament 
Greek is, in some material way, a difFerent language 
from the Greek of the classics. 

Had the Evangelists and the Apostles written in a 
language materially changed from that written and 
spoken by Greeks generally, they would have given mys- 
teries and enigmas to the world which no scholarship 
could have solved. 

The Greek language, like every other living tongue, 
passed through various changes of dialect and idiom, 
in the course of its history. The New Testament 
Greek does not differ more materially from that of Xen- 
ophon, than Xenopho differs from the dialects of Ho- 
mer. 

Sectarian perversity, in order to support its party pro- 
jects, failing utterly in its appeaj to the classics, has re- 
presented the New Testament as written in a peculiar 
language, half Greek, half Hebrew: ignorance may 
honestly re-echo this idea, and suppose that a sound 
argument can be built upon it; but the classical scholar 
who has examined this matter for himself, will arrive at 
a very different result. Secondly, Brother Henderson's 
argument assumes that we do not study New Testa- 
ment Greek in our schools at the present day. 

Tkis, sir, is a palpable mistake. In the school course, 
the New Testament was the first Greek author read: 
and this is the usual plan in European schools, adopted, 
not because they suppose Helenistic Greek to be some 
very difficult affair, but because its historic authors af- 
ford us the easiest Greek in the language. 



SPEECH OF JOHN YOUNG. 



179 



But whether in Europe or America it matters nothing 
to my argument. The Greek Testament is studied in 
every seminary that makes the slightest pretensions to 
impart a good classical education. I had supposed, sir, 
that our scholars fn the present day were expending 
much time and talent upon the elucidation of the lan- 
guage of the New Testament. 

King James' translators certainly had no such helps 
as the Lexicons of Wahl, Robinson and Bloomfield are 
to us. The dialect peculiarities of the New Testament 
have been explored and the results given in the Gram- 
mars of Winer and Stuart. No such Grammars of 
New Testament idiom were in existence two hundred 
years ago. 

The scholars of America, England and Germany have 
studied all the forms of the Greek language with a zeal 
and assiduity utterly unknown to former ages. Our 
Lexicons, rules of interpretation, and helps of every 
kind are greatly in advance of similar apparatus in the 
days of King James. In this assertion I defy contra- 
diction, for I am confident that no true scholar will ev- 
er risk his reputation by denying it. Thirdly, Brother 
Henderson's argument assumes that classical scholars 
in former ages, made Helenistic, or New Testament 
Greek their peculiar study. 

"The translators approximated," says he, "to the 
Hellenistic Greek." This is curious, and to me some- 
what mysterious. 

The Greek language had ceased to be spoken at least 
one thousand years before their day. I cannot see what 
advantage the difference of two hundred and fifty years 
makes in approximation whjen it was yet one thousand 
years too late to bring them in contact with Greek as a 
living and spoken tongue. If a man is too late for the 
starting of a stage or steamboat, it matters nothing 
whether he fall behind one minute or one thousand. 
King James' translators fell far behind the existence of 
Greek as a living tongue. They had to learn it as we 
do, from its authors; and their priority to us in time, 
could, in no way, help them to the true meaning of the 
language. Lest, however, we might have supposed 
that, their approximation had really made them well ac- 



180 SPEECH OF JOHN YOUNG. 

quainted with the Hebrew idiom of the New Testament, 
Brother Henderson takes care to stultify and destroy 
his own argument, by charging upon King James' 
translators, either an ignorant or wilful neglect of this 
very idiom, which he declares to be all important in a 
faithful translation. 

Will it be believed, sir, that the very mgtn who says 
that our want of knowledge of Hellenistic Greek, dis- 
qualifies us for translating, holds up to view proofs that 
the authors of our common version either did not pos- 
sess this knowledge or else neglected it? I had risen, 
sir, to answer Brother Henderson's argument; but in 
pity upon me, Brother Henderson does not afford me the 
opportunity of a reply; but answers fully his own argu- 
ment—cuts it up even by the roots, and leaves nothing 
for me to do but to quote his own language. He shows 
from two examples that, King James' translators fol- 
lowed classic usage and neglected their Hellenistic 
knowledge. He produces two passages in which he 
says our common version renders proginosco by foreknow, 
which he says is its classical sense; but he affirms, it 
ought to have been rendered fore approve, according to 
the Hellenistic idiom. 

He shows tis then, by plain and palpable instances, 
that our common version contains great errors — errors 
arising, as he says from a want of knowledge of Hel- 
lenistic Greek; yet he manfully opposes our attempts 
to correct these errors, and almost in the same breath 
he eulogises the wonderful learning of the very men, 
whom he has proved to be such blunderers. 

Seeing, sir, that Hellenistic Greek is not taught, as 
he says, in the schools, I cannot but wonder where 
Brother Henderson learned so much of it as to enable 
him to prove so conclusively that, King James' transla- 
tors stumbled and fell most seriously in that particular 
matter. 

Says Dr. Henderson, "I have little confidence in the 
Bishops of the English church. Too many of these 
have been racers, gamblers, and chess players." Brother 
Henderson intimates that he gives this as the opinions 
of others. I certainly did not so understand him, and 
I ought to know, for I wrote down the sentence almost 



SPEECH OF JOHN YOUNG. 181 

verbally, as he delivered it. Bat I will give him the 
full benefit of his explanations. Others have thought 
many of them to be gamblers and racers. Then these 
others thought right, and if Brother Henderson thinks 
otherwise he makes a great mistake. History pro- 
claims it to be true. Many of the English clergy, both 
priests and bishops, have been patronisers of the turf, 
leaders in the fashionable balls of the country, and ad- 
dicted openly and unblushingly to pleasure and dissi- 
pation. 

Was that, sir, the kind of employments by which they 
approximated so closely to Hellenistic Greek. How. 
pray, do the stubborn facts of the racing and pleasure- 
hunting propensities of the English clergy of a by-gone 
age, consort with our fanciful notions of their great 
learning, deep piety, and wonderful fitness to translate 
the Scriptures. 

The kind of clergy, sir., who excluded and drove out 
Wesley and Whitfield, because they prayed too much, 
are not axactly the best standard bearers of our faith, 
or the translators of our Bible. 

Brother Henderson next argues that the early trans- 
lators were inspired- with a noble zeal for truth, and 
their intellects invigorated by contests with the Ro- 
manists, so as to be peculiarly well qualified for the 
work of translation. 

This, sir, was true of WicklifFe, Tindal, Coverdale. 
and all the earlier translators. Their zeal for the diffu- 
sion of truth was worthy of all admiration. They hazard- 
ed their lives in giving God's word in its native purity 
to the English people. 

We admire the noble impulse of benevolence which 
actuated these men, and we desire as far as possible 
to catch their falling mantle, to be animated with their 
spirit and to tread in their footsteps. They were not 
satisfied with imperfect and erroneous translations. 
Neither are we satisfied, to use a book as the pure wo? I 
of God, which w r e know to be full of mistakes and mis- 
translations. They, zealous for truth, did their utmos; 
to remove defects, and put the people into possession 
of inspired thoughts. We, furnished as we are with 
helps which they possessed not, can carry their w ; ork 
16 



182 SPEECH OF JOHN YOUNG. 

still further onward to perfection, and we are bound to 
do so, or we would be unw r orthy#to proclaim ourselves 
their admirers. 

They met at every step of their progress, with relent- 
less opposition from all who were afraid of truth, 
and unwilling that their errors should be exposed to 
light. The charge against them was, that they were 
making new Bibles to uphold their Protestant sects. 

We too, sir, are encountering an opposition as un- 
justifiable, and a charge of sectarianism as unfounded 
in fact, as that made against them. But, alas, sir, here 
the comparison fails. They were opposed by Roman- 
ists, deadly enemies to bible light and liberty. We, 
more unnaturally, are assailed by our Protestant breth- 
ren — the professed friends of the bible — men who are 
bound as Christians and American citizens, to aid in 
translating and circulating the Bible. Men who on 
every subject are the friends of progress, but who in 
this matter seem sadly afraid that too much light 
should be shed upon the world. 

I call upon them to stop in their opposition, and pon- 
der well the interpretation that will be put upon their 
course, by those who are without. I ask them to con- 
sider whether in maintaining that only one English 
version of the Bible shall be made and circulated, they 
are not taking the Romanist ground, and giving aid and 
comfort to the common enemy. I charge them by their 
love for God's word, and their desire to see it read, to 
forbear from this unnatural crusade against those who 
are honestly attempting to make the Bible understood. 
I warn them that this is no spasmodic struggle to up- 
hold the dogmas of a sect; but a mighty effort to en- 
large the boundaries of religious knowledge, and wo 
betide the parties or the men who shall set themselves 
against the march of mind and the struggles for free- 
dom. I tremble at the verdict which an enlightened 
prosperity shall pronounce upon their present factious 
opposition to this good and great undertaking, and I 
pray God that the judgment of heaven may not fall 
upon them for their opposition to the spread of know- 
ledge. 

The early translators of the Bible were well aware 








SPEECH OF JOHN YOUNG. 183 

that a thoroughly good version could only be produced 
by repeated and frequently renewed revisions. This, 
sir, is as true of translations from heathen authors fte 
of the Bible. Who would think of complaining that 
one more translation of Virgil or Homer were added to 
the number already in the market? Have not the 
translations of Wesley, of Stuart, of Thompson, and 
others, been hailed with satisfaction, as an additional 
contribution to the stock of Bible information. These 
private adventurers in this region of discovery, have 
been applauded, bat when we come to concentrate a large 
amount of the learning of the age upon this object, we 
are scowled upon by the very men whose clerical office 
should have made them the fast friends of any sugh 
movement. 

There is not a science or an art in existence that 
reached perfection in a year or in a century. 

The present advanced state of the arts and science* 
has been produced by improvement following upon im- 
provement. In relation to our knowledge of Scripture 
only has the stand still theory been attempted to be en- 
forced, and the disastrous consequences are apparent 
in the jarring and divided state of Christendom. 

Too long have Protestants folded their hands and 
boasted cf the wisdom of their fathers. It is surely 
high time that we should cease from useless panegyrics 
of the dead, and do something ourselves worthy the de- 
scendants of those men. We will honor them more by 
carrying on to perfection the work which they so nobly 
began than by any eloquent eulogies that we can ever 
pronounce upon them. 

They made some half a dozen or more revisions of 
the Bible, in the space of two hundred and fifty years, 
and it would be singular indeed, if one more revision 
should not have become necessary at the end of anoth- 
er two and a half centuries. 

Brother Henderson attempts to forestall the argu- 
ments in favor of revision, which he well knew would 
arise from these facts, by saying that the English lan- 
guage has changed less during the last two hundred 
and fifty years than it did in any previous period. 
This may be true, sir, and yet not touch the question; 



1 84 SPEECH OF JOHN YOUtfG, 

for its changes, previous to the days of King James, 
were very sudden and very great. But, if Brother Hen- 
derson could say that it changed but little since that 
time, he would then have some solid ground to stand 
upon. The truth is, that our language has undergone 
since that time very important transformations. There 
are many forms of speech made use of in our common 
version, that are palpably in violation of our present 
grammatical rules. 

Young people learn from the Bible to terminate the 
third person singular of their verbs with eth, but under a 
proper teacher they axe soon made aware that this is 
an antiquated form, which, if used in composition, 
would expose them to ridicule. 

Which instead of who, and thee and thou instead of 
you, belong to an age gone by. Listeth, leasing ', eschew, 
and we do you to wit, are blemishes which ought not to 
disfigure a book so much read as the Bible. We need 
not wonder that men of taste are unwilling to read this 
book, while we must admit that it contains phrases so 
uncouth and indelicate as almost to put the firmest be- 
liever to the blush. 

If this version had fully and faithfully expressed the 
mind of the Spirit, in the language used in its day (a 
thing that no man will affirm), it yet, by this time, 
would have required revision, to bring it up to the En- 
glish standard which we now speak and write. 

Brother Henderson assumes that we are not compe- 
tent to the work of revision, and yet somewhat incon- 
sistently compliments brother Alexander Campbell as 
well qualified for such a work. He also says that the 
address of Brother Shannon is the finest specimen of 
pure English he has ever heard. 

How the whole body can be wanting in the necessary 
qualifications, while one or two members of the body 
possess these qualifications, is to me somewhat curious 
and inexplicable. I cannot help believing that this 
kind of logic would prove the mathematical absurdity 
that sl part can be greater than the whole. 

The competency of Brother Campbell he felt con- 
strained by public opinion to admit; but while we thank 
him for the admission, and claim noJ: to be such men 



SPEECH OF JOHN YOUNG. 185 

as lie, we yet rejoice that among the friends of this en- 
terprise we can count our qualified men, not by units- 
but by hundreds. And, if need be, we mean to secure 
in this work the help of the most eminent scholars who 
stand above the shackles of sectarian partyism. 

Brother Henderson says that we are furnishing weap- 
ons to infidelity, fey the dark and sweeping charges that 
we make against the common version. We have called 
the version incorrect and unfaithful. Now 7 , Brother Hen- 
derson himself admits that it is incorrect; but says. 
"We'll mend it another way.'" 

He stands up, sir, in this body, to oppose our move- 
ment, and to answer our arguments. He has volunta- 
rily stepped into the arena, and assumed the honorable 
position of the champion of the anti-revision cohorts. 
He lias listened to the speeches of our brethren thus 
far, and they have presented, 1 might almost say, thous- 
ands of examples of inaccurics, both of language and 
of sense. Dares our opponent now deny that these 
mistakes exist in this version? O, no; far from that! 
He full}- admits their existence. He says it is inaccu- 
rate, and needs revision. How wonderfully valiant this 
champion is, who very complacently informs us that. 
u one lean man" has thus confronted a whole convention. 

His own brethren, I fear, will not thank him for his 
advocacy. It seems to me, sir, that he has spiked his 
own cannon — abandoned the Pedo Baptist battlement* 
— and surrendered the whole question to our mercy! 
His advocacy may afford to himself some honor; but, 
I think it will prove a most fatal friendship to the cause 
for which he seems to plead. This was the time and 
place, and he, by the position in which he has placed 
himself, the very man to expose our erroneous altera- 
tions of God's holy word. Instead of doing this, be 
admits the errors and the need of revision, and onlv 
claims that the work should be done by the Pedo Bap- 
tists, rather than by the Baptists. It would be heresy. 
I suppose, for immersionists to make a new version; 
but perfectly orthodox for Pedo Baptists to make one. 
"You are,"' says he, "a whipt party, if you put the 
word immerse in it," Again, he declares, "he objects to 
our work, because we will put our creed in it. v Let me 
16* 



186 SPLECH OF JOHN YOUNct; 

respectfully ask, whether it was not Pedo Baptists that 
made our common version, and whether a similar jeal- 
ousy might not reasonably suspect that they had put a 
little too much of their creed in it? 

Suppose the American Bible Society should revise 
the Bible, might we not feartfiat they would lean a lit- 
tle too much to the popular theory of a no mode ordi- 
nance? I now affirm before Heaven my conviction that, 
the Pedo Baptists will never venture to make a new ver- 
sion, unless our competition and the present discussion 
of the subject should compel them to move in the mat- 
ter. 

No, sir, they know too well the delicate ground on 
which they stand, to adventure such changes as faith- 
fulness might require. What a strange idea, to talk of 
the American Bible Society making a new English 
verson! This verj American Bible Society has, within 
a few years past, actually erected the defects and cov- 
erings up of our English Bible, into a standard to 
which their translators must conform in future all their 
foreign translations. The idea of a new version from 
such a quarter is preposterous. The hope, if really en- 
tertained, is wholly delusive. If Brother Henderson 
actually wishes a revised Bible, as he seems here to 
say he does, he is doomed to disappointment. The 
orators of his party, from Dan even to Beersheba, are 
eloquent in opposing any such project. If he be sincere 
in this matter, the present time is favorable, and he 
will find us to be the only people who have a mind to 
the work. Let him come and aid us in a work which 
is now in progress, instead of waiting for that which 
the present generation will most likely never live to 
see. 

If, however, he knows that the American Bible Socie- 
ty have no idea of doing any such work, then must I 
declare that it is unkind of him to feed the public ex- 
pectation with delusive hopes. The head and front of 
i)[\v offending, in Brother Henderson's estimation, is 
not our proposed revision of the Scriptures; but simply 
our refusal to compromise the meaning of the word 
twrptidzo. The Pedo Baptist clamor about this word re- 
minds me of the two women, who both claimed before 



SPEECH OF JOHN YOUNG. 187 

Solomon the maternity of a child. The king com- 
manded it to be divided, and the false claimant con- 
sented; but the true parent said "nay, let not the child 
be killed. " The Pedo Baptists, sir, knowing that this 
word baptizo is no friend to their practice, would halve 
this word, or hide it; but we, fully aware of the jus- 
tice of our claim to it, declare that we will not stand 
tamely by, and see it have foul play; but that like all 
other words in the language, it shall go forth to the 
world clothed with the meaning that God and the 
Greek language gave it. The American Bible Society 
have learning enough at their command to accomplish 
such a work. They have also had ample time to have 
moved in the matter ere this; but they cannot and they 
will not do it. Were they to taka away the worda 
Bishop, Church, and Easter, and put in their room Over- 
seer, Congregation, and Passover, their Episcopal friends 
would desert them. 

Did they remove the shade of Calvinism which 
Brother Henderson says disfigures it, their high ortho- 
dox friends would instantly rise into rebellion. 

If they meddle with the w r ord baptizo, they must trans- 
late it sprinkle, which true scholarship forbids; or immerse, 
which their own practice forbids; or give it no meaning 
at all, which common sense itself condemns. 

They are like parties occupying an old mansion, 
which has become leaky — the timbers are giving away, 
and it sadly needs repairs — but no repair can be given 
unto it; for the first old beam that is pulled out will 
shake the fabric, and the rickety edifice will tumble 
abouttheir ears. 

Such an umveildy body as the American Bible Socie- 
ty is built almost of necessity upon compromise, and 
cemented by the sacrifice of truth. Improvements can 
no more originate in such bodies, than new sciences 
can be first taught in colleges. Truth must first work 
its way amongst the people, and finally gain an admis- 
sion into even that society, by a suasion that cannot be 
resisted. Mr. Henderson has left on the minds of his 
auditory the impression that the American Bible So- 
ciety has already made an important revision. 

The changes made. sir. are so small that if he had 



188 SPEECH OF JOHN YOUNG. 

not announced the fact; not one reader in a thousand 
would have ever discovered the improvements. 

The spelling had become inaccurate by the great va- 
riety of editions issued, and they revised the book with 
a view to secure typographical accuracy, which was 
all well enough as far as it extended. But just w T here 
the great defects of meaning and phraseology begin, 
there their improvements terminate. 

To boast of correcting spelling and small particles, 
while the acknowledgediy important errors are still suf- 
fered to pass untouched, appears to fall under the cate- 
gory of that morality which strains at a gnat and swal- 
lows a camel. 

I cannot, sir, for the life of me, think that Brother 
Henderson is serious in the belief that the American 
Bible Society either ever had made, or ever intended to 
make , any important re-translation of the Bible into 
English. I almost fear, sir, that our brother is laboring 
to persuade the people of that of which he finds it very 
difficult to convince himself. Our language, says he, 
furnishes weapons to infidelity. He means that infi- 
dels will take hold of the examples of erroneous trans- 
lations, which we are pointing out, and use them as 
capital against the Bible. 

According to this principle, we should be afraid to 
admit the truth in this matter, lest sceptics might over- 
hear us. I, sir, have no sympathy for any such priestly 
squeamishness. Infidels have a right to know the real 
state of things. Their own well being and the honor 
of God's word demands that the true meaning of the 
book shall be known. 

The time has been, when truth had to be hidden and 
falsehoods published for the, sake of the church, but I 
hope that these days will not soon return. If any one 
supposes that the cause of religion requires us to call 
falsehood by the name of truth, and surname blemish- 
es beauties, he is most grievously mistaken. 

Treacherous is the spirit that will conceal the facte 
of the case in fear of enemies- 

These enemies will be sharp enough speedily to dis- 
cover that there is rottenness in the State of Denmark, 
and they will learn to despise us and our feeble subter- 



SPEECH OF JOHN YOUNG. 189 

fuges. Dishonesty, or even secrecy, in the service of 
God, is not demanded at our hands, and would eventu- 
ally issue in the overthrow of the cause. Let the infi- 
del and the worldling and the Christian all know thai 
King James' version contains grave errors. Candor 
and honesty require us to admit the fact, 

Infidelity will not bc^ strengthened by this admission, 
but weakened. It has grown and flourished upon the 
misrenderings of the English Bible. The borrowing of 
jewels — the raising up Pharaoh to destroy him — ti: 
and many similar errors have made infidelity strong as 
Sampson; but we mean by correcting these blunders to 
shear its locks, and make it weak as in early times. 

Brother Henderson seems offended at us for calling 
King James 1 translation an Episcopal version, yet he 
admits that the King and a majority of the translators 
were Episcopalians. Hume says that, the Puritans 
had not then separated from the established church. 
There were then in England, properly speaking, no dis- 
senters except the Catholics, and the object of James 
in favoring a new version was to check the progress of 
puritanic principles by the introduction of ecclesiasti- 
cal phraseology, that had been partly laid aside in the 
Bishop's Bible then in use. 

No man understands the character of James, who 
supposes that the love of truth had any share in moving 
him to this work. 

He was no simpleton, though his frequent religious 
conferences with his bishops might make him seem so. 

His object was well deiined and candidly expressed. 
No bishop, nocking, was his motto, and the fawning 
translators well knew that they were expected to bring 
out a work that would sustain the church as by law es- 
tablished. 

One church united with the State, governed by the 
King — one set of obedient bishops, kneeling at his feet, 
and exclaiming that he spoke by inspiration — and one 
authoris< d version to sanctify and sustain the fabric of 
Church and State, and to proclaim the praises of the 
most high and mighty prince who had made it. These 
were the grand aims that James had in view. 

To accomplish this end, puritan conventicles were 



100 SPEECH OF JOHN YOUNG. 

discountenanced, the word congregation gave way to 
make room for the term church, which meant the hier- 
archy, and the Scottish Presbyterians were kept too 
much in fear of having episcopacy practically installed 
among them, to have time for much grumbling about 
the phraseology of their new version. 

Brother Henderson cannot believe that these trans- 
lators had any idea of authorizing the theory of a tri- 
ple order of the clergy, because, as he says, they failed 
in the attempt, as three orders of clergy cannot be prov- 
ed from the Bible. 

Now, 1 admit that they had not the courage to forge 
a text which would plainly prove the point. Many at- 
tempt to show that there is no immersion implied in 
the baptism of Jesus or the Ethiopian Eunuch; yet aa 
they cannot quite nullify these histories, they fail in the 
attempt, and immersion shines through the narratives, 
in despite of the torturing criticisms of religious party- 
ism. 

The translators have succeeded in greatly marring 
and obscuring the truth on this subject; but still some 
rays of light break out amid the gloom they have cre- 
ated. I will now, sir, afford you plain and positive 
proof that King James' version disguises the truth in 
this matter. In Acts, 20th chap., 17th verse, Paul calls 
for the Elders of the Church at Ephesus, and in his ad- 
dress to them (verse 18), he says the Holy Ghost hath 
made them cpiskopous (bishops). The primitive Elders, 
then, were bishops, according to this passage. But 
that would not do for an Episcopal King and Clergy to 
acknowledge. These same translators had discarded 
the term overseer, and adopted bishop as their favorite 
phrase; but here, where the retention of bishop would 
destroy Episcopal exaltation, they conveniently forgot 
their ecclesiastical word, bound on them by rule, and 
adopt for once the obnoxious puritanic word, overseer. 
And the King pardons them for the fraud, and the diso- 
bedience to orders, for the thing was done for the ser- 
vice of the Church, and to stultify the people. 

What else but a leaning toward Episcopal formi 
could have caused these men to reject the term pass- 
over as the translation of pascha, in Acts 12-4; and to 



Speech op john young\ 101 

insert there the word Easter, a term unauthorised by 
any lexicon, scholar or critic under Heaven. 

The Episcopal Church, then, actually gave us thin 
version. If might have been better, but as a whole it 
was a good version, and lias done good service in it» 
day. its defects and errors are, however, now apparent, 
hot only to the eye of the scholar, but even to the 
public. 

Why, then, shall we not try to mend it wherein it is 
faulty, and preserve all of it that is good? Can we not 
be trusted to as dealing honestly in this matter, because 
we baptize by immersion? Nay, farther, we may claim 
that it is our honest desire to obey God's word faithful- 
ly that causes us to use this mode of baptism so repug- 
nant to the delicate and fashionable. Can we be far 
in error, or acting very dishonestly, if we even render 
baptize by immerse. Our opponent and accuser here 
acknowledges before us, that he can most conscientious- 
ly immerse a believer. 

Shall we be charged with dishonesty nn rendering it 
immerse, when our assailant declares that he can hon- 
estly and conscientiously perform the rite by immersion. 
If wo should happen to render this term by the word 
immerse, we are sure that the most celebrated schol- 
ars and theologians in the world cannot except against 
it; for lexicons, critics, and great men, the world over, 
declare, with one united voice, that it is the primary 
meaning of the word. 

I perceive that my good brother has very indistinct 
ideas of what sectarianism means, when he says that 
we'mean to make a sectarian version, and to put our 
creed in the Bible. He seems to imagine that because 
a part of the religious world believe, or practice, any- 
thing, that their very u^c of it renders that thing a sec- 
tarian peculiarity, and would justify its exclusion, with- 
out reference to whether it is taught in the Bible or not. 

Now, I will lay down what I hold to be the true rule 
in this great matter. As long as a people believe and 
practice only what is plainly taught and commanded 
in the Bible, sectarianism is neither taught nor prac- 
ticed among them; all the attributes and peculiarities 



192 SPEECH OF JOHN YOUNG. 

of that people are the attributes and peculiarities of primi- 
tive Christianity. They stand upon the rock of ages. 
They are no sect, but the true church of God. The 
author of Christianity is responsible for what they do 
in compliance with His will. 

But whenever a people erect their own dogmas and 
additions into an authoritative standard, or even discard 
what God has taught, and thus separate themselves 
from the fellowship of the faithful. That people are a 
sect. They pursue selfish, sectarian, and party ob- 
jects, and God will hold them responsible accordingly. 

Now, sir, our only wish as a people is to be and to 
do what He has required of His people. We mean to 
fetter our translators w T ith no commands or restrictions 
as to the mode of baptism. We will charge them, as 
God-fearing and learned men, to translate the word 
baptism by the very terms which faithfulness and sound 
scholarship require. 

If our opponents know that a faithful and scholarly 
translation of this word will accord best with our prac- 
tice, then are they self-condemned, and their attempt 
to raise the cry of sectarianism against us is only a 
means of blinding the eyes of the public to the true 
question at issue. 

I affirm again that, the true question at issue is 
what this word does actually mean. If it means im- 
merse, we ought to speak out and say so, though the 
heavens should fall. If it means sprinkle, then should 
our opposers act as honest men, and so render it be- 
fore Ihe w T orld. But that it is a word of such elasticity 
of texture as to mean anything, everything, or nothing, 
is wholly incredible and utterly preposterous. 

Our present version sprang, undoubtedly, from a po- 
litical caucus — a king who used religion as an engine 
of tyranny and time-serving bishops — flatterers of the 
very foibles of their monarch. 

Of ourselves in comparison with these men, we should 
say little, and what we mean to affirm is forced from us 
by the declaration of our opponents, that we are in- 
competent to this work. We are the descendants of 
the pilgrim fathers; the first proclaimers of our faith in 
this country exiled themselves, to escape the persecu- 



SPEECH OF JOHN YOUNG. 193 

tions of the very church that made this version. Nur- 
tured in the lap of liberty, we first raised the standard 
of true religious freedom on these shores. Truth has 
been our motto, and in its alliance we have found our- 
selves invincible. No taunt of being a whipt party, so 
ungracefully hurled at us by the man to whom we ex- 
tended the courtesy of a hearing, can frighten us from 
our undertaking. 

We wield a sword that has been already tried a 
thousand times. We know both its temper audits 
edge. Our present ratio of increase shows us whether 
we are to anticipate victory or defeat. We can and wc 
will revise and amend this translation, and we will do 
it without the fear or the favor of men before our eyes. 
God's word shall speak out for itself, and utter to the 
world its true meaning; and, for the test of this matter, 
we put ourselves upon the country, and appeal from 
sectarian clamor to the high tribunal of the world's 
scholarship. 

Upon this very principle Brother Henderson declares 
how he would have acted, had he been one of King 
James' translators. He would have done his utmost, 
he says, to have removed the shade of Calvinism which 
disfigures this version. 

Now, I will do his head and his heart the justice 
to express my belief that, he would not have done so 
merely to have supported the Arminianism of his par- 
ty, but simply because the true meaning of God's book 
did not sustain that theory. He would have said, "Let 
God be true, though every man should be a liar." 

This liberty only, do we claim for ourselves. If it is 
gracefully conceded to us, then it is well, but if other- 
wise, still we mean to use it, and the world and posteri- 
ty will do us justice. 

I am glad, sir, that Brother Henderson has been fully 
heard in this meeting. If the arguments he has advan- 
ced have weight enough to frustrate our undertaking, 
then it deserves to come to nought, but if the conces- 
sions and admissions he has made furnish additional 
reasons for a revision of the English Scriptures, then 
let them be published with our minutes, that all men 
may estimate them at their true value. 
17 



SPEECH OF JOHN YOUNG, 

Of Bacon College, Kentucky, at the Bible Revision Meeting, 
field at Louisville, April 2d, 1853. 

Mr. Prlsiient: Having been most courteously invi- 
ted by your Secretary to address this meeting, I should 
have deemed it due to the intelligence of the auditory 
to prepare a written address; but my engagements have 
not allowed me sufficient leisure for the work. Will 
yoti then accept from, me a few thoughts, hastily put 
together, in the assurance that I would gladly have pre- 
sented you with an offering more worthy of the cause, 
if my circumstances had been favorable? The princi- 
ples which now guide us in the investigation of the 
works of God are equally applicable and necessary in 
our study "of the Word of the Most High. In ancient 
times, philosophers constructed theories, and employed 
a world of ingenuity in the formation of systems. 
These creations of their active imaginations were pre- 
sented to the public in all the warm glow of the high- 
est eloquence. Poetry too, lent her aid to adorn and 
commend them to the admiration of mankind. They 
produced the effect desired. They were admired, and 
believed for a time, and then cast aside to make room 
for some other fancies equally beautiful, equally use- 
less, and equally short-lived. Meantime, sects arose, 
and gathered around the authors of these systems, like 
the atoms of a water-drop around their centre of gravi- 
ty. While between these various schools, high feud?? 
began; and all the rival passions and harsh epithets, 
such as now disgrace the domain of Theology, then 
threw discredit upon the rival pleaders for opposing sys- 
tems in science. 

But most strange of all, amid all that warm play of 
fancy, and all the zeal of party contest, true knowledge 
scarcely made any advancement. Her professed friends 
were either her worst enemies, or, if they truly wished 
her well, they knew not how to aid her. The world 
sunk back into" the thick darkness of the middle ages, 



SPEECH OF JOHN YOl'XC. 19$ 

and the beautiful theories of antiquity lay embalmed 
in the noble language of the Greeks. Then Bacon 
md with stately step and solemn air, he went 
>re, and pointed out to aft way to know- 

ledge. With stern reproof, he hushed the sounds of 
discord. The excited passions he laid under 
and summoned impartiality and strong love of truth to 
push forward their patient investigations. He roused 
cool judgment from her sleep of ages, and made her 
gird for arc! ils in hope of rewards, more 

gloriou er won before by mortal effort, 

His 1; ^ple, and, like gravitation, almost a unit, 

yet able to open up the mysteries of a universe. 

Patiently and impartially must the student of nature 
gather the facts of nature as they are to be found, and 
gather them, too, from every country, and from every 
age of Man's past history, until, from the vast accumu- 
lation of particulars, arranged amd classified, there 
stands forth the general law in all its heavenly beauty 
-. — a Law Divine — a Law of God — a truth immortal as 
the heavens. Possessed at last of that general law, 
man has the key of nature in his hands. Her secrets 
open at his touch, her mysteries stand unveiled, and by 
their beauty recompense the enquirer for all his toil 
and pains. What are now the results of the adoption 
of correct principles in interpreting nature? 

The discoveries of the present day form the proper 
answer to that question. We have taught the very 
lightnings of Heaven to do our bidding — to run upon 
our errands, and, quick as thought, to carry our messa- 
ges to the ends of the earth. We have made the Sun 
our painter, and, though he flatters not, he is ever 
faithful, and fears no comparison with the grand mas- 
ters of the art. The compounds of nature dissolve 
themselves into elements at our command, and rise up 
in new and more beautiful forms than before. By the 
help of induction, man has become at last in very deed, 
and not in mere rhetoric, the Lord of the world. 

We, however, are this -scmbled, tc devise way* 

and means for unlocking a treasure richer than the 
stores of earth. Heaven has laid up its wisdom, love 
and power in that wondrous volume that we call the 



396 SPEECH OF JOHN YOUNG. 

Bible, and we wish to own that mo^t precious treasure. 
Many have dug in these mines of God's wisdom, and 
though they found not all the gold, thej went not empty 
away. We, too, would search; for heavenly wisdom 
calls to men, and offers treasures greater far than East 
or West unfold. How shall we begin? In science, we 
begin by a faithful report of facts. So in religion we 
must begin by a faithful translation of the sacred wri- 
tings. If the facts of nature are inaccurately reported, 
the conclusions arrived at must be erroneous; and if 
the Bible be not fairly and faithfully translated, then 
vain are the efforts of the Theologian in his attempts 
to deduce from that Bible a consistent plan of God's 
providence and grace. Neither can the Theologian re- 
sort, in all his difficulties, to the originals. A mere 
smattering of the Hebrew and Greek, such as the pub- 
lic teachers of the Bible generally possess, will only 
serve to bewilder and lead astray in attempts to amend 
the text. 

To make a faithful translation of the Bible requires 
great knowledge of both language and history. It is 
not the reach of thought, the rapidity of analysis, and 
the soaring sweep of minds, great as the heavens, that 
qualify and equip a man to make a faithful translation; 
but that close and microscopic observation, which over- 
looks not the minutest atoms of thought, and the nice 
practice of a mind accustomed to detect the slighter 
differences, the very shades and coloring of an idea. 
These are the proper qualification's of a translator, and 
by these alone he can succeed. 

The ministry of the present day, with all their praise- 
worthy acquirements, need an accurate^translation; for, 
if it leads astray, not one in ten of them is competent 
to guard himself or his hearers from the evil produced 
by that error. While the spirit of reckless privateering 
in new version making, which has chacterised our pul- 
pits for a long time past is neither safe nor commend- 
able, and can only be accounted for and apologised for 
by the acknowledged faultiness of the version we have 
now in use. 

Nature declares a power divine, but wraps that pow- 
er in clouds and darkness, and leaves human hope and 



SPEECH OF JOHN YOUNG 197 

e::riosity equally unsatisfied. Then the Bible parts the 
thick clouds, and shows us our Great Father in the 
Heavens. It reveals the character of God and the 
charactor of man. It anticipates the close of earth, 
and the opening of eternity. For all our knowledge 
that can be properly called religious, we are dependant 
on the Bible. We owe it then to the authority and 
claims of the Bible, that it should be very faithfully 
translated. If it is wisdom to be good and lovely, then 
it should not be deteriorated by misrenderings, nor by 
the speculative philosophy of erring theorists. The 
gold should not be mixed with brass, nor the iron weak- 
ened by an amalgamation with miry clay. Nay, we 
owe it to the very enemies of the Bible, that it should 
be faithfully translated: — perhaps some of its blemishes 
that have caused the objector to shrink back from it? 
acceptance, may disappear in a correct version; but if 
truth requires that they should remain, and even grow 
still more objectionable., then do we owe it to the infidel 
to give him the full force of all the sound objections that 
can be urged against it. 

In the name of justice and fairness, we ask that this 
much commended and much abused book shall be al- 
lowed to speak fully for itself, and tell its own tale. 
Let it not be painted or beautified with the attire of 
harlot vanity, and let it not be bespattered with the dis- 
colorations of human error — let it appear beautiful as 
the parents of mankind in Eden; and, like them, we 
think it will wake the human soul to admiration and 
love. 

Many of our creeds and systems of Theology have 
assuredly become stale, flat and unprofitable. They 
received their first form and being at least as early a* 
the sixth century. They were formed in an age when 
xhe true way to study nature or revesjatiou was scarce- 
ly known. No man supposes that Origen, Athanasiue. 
or Augustine employed the inductive method in their 
biblical researches. Their age w T as not surely peculiar 
for a patient use of the grammar and lexicon in the 
study of the Bible. The men who measured the value 
of their labors as interpreters by the size of their folios, 
were not likely to weigh well the meaning of .the pas- 
17* 



198 SPEECH OF JOHN TOtlM. 

sages they quoted, or spare the time to collect all the 
applicable texts before they pronounced their final de- 
cision. Yet these men are in truth, the makers of most 
of our modern systems of Theology; for Luther, Calvin 
and their compeers studied Paul and Peter under the 
immediate tuition and guidance of the early Fathers. 

These systems modernized, as they were by these 
great men, have hung as an incubus upon Christianity 
in our own times. I must declare, that I regard the 
veneration in which they are held, as a sore evil under 
the sun. They stand directly in the way of true pro- 
gress in religious knowledge. Hatred, reproach, and 
the cry of heresy follows any man who dares to ques- 
tion their impeccability. Were they truer than they 
are, they would give us only the husk of wisdom with- 
out the kernel, and a form of Godliness and piety, 
without its force and virtue. 

By what some call Systematic Theology, the masses 
of the people have, from time immemorial, been most 
sadly deceived. They have received it as the result of 
Divine wisdom, and the very quintessence of Heaven's 
revelation. They supposed its authors were cool, im- 
partial investigators; while history shows them to have 
been fiery partizans. They imagine the fathers of 
their Theology to have been men learned in the laws of 
language; while scholars know that they were silly 
even as old women, contending with one another about 
words, to no profit. Joyfully then we hail the dawning 
of a brighter day for biblical science. These antiquated 
systems of Divinity have, like mummies, bscome too 
dry and musty ttf please any longer the the public eye. 

Commentaries, though sometimes very needful, are 
yet at a discount. Sermons are published in abund- 
ance, but rarely read, except by the author's special ad- 
mirers. These are sad omens in the eyes of the scho- 
lastic Divine; but to us, who prize the Bible above all, 
they are tokens of light, and peace, and blessedness. 
The Bible itself is regularly rising in public estimation, 
its heavenly love is the well-spring of the public benev- 
olence which characterises this age. Disheartened and 
disappointed in their wanderings among the clashing 
systems of men, thousands are raying with David, "who 



SPEECH OF JOHN YOUNG. 199 

ivill show us any good?'' and they answer one another 
and say, "Lord, lift thou on us the light of thy counten- 
ance." 

Nay, even the very books that give us sure aid in the 
interpretation of the Bible, are now sought after. Tho 
researches of travellers in the East are eagerly pur- 
chased. Antiquities, Geography and History are fairly 
brought into requisition to unfold the true meaning of 
this Book of books; but, from the crushing weight of 
ancient theory, the public voice crie3 out, "good Lord 
deliver us." . 

We conclude, then, that good Theology is no nice 
web- work of the human imagination, no ingenious plan 
of accounting for what is inscrutable; but simply the 
truths of the Bible, fresh and pure as garden flowers, 
new culled, ascertained immediately from the Bible by 
the application of sound laws of interpretation. If, 
then, the translation be faulty, their beauty is marred, 
their heavenly fragrance is vanished, and the sweetness 
of God's own word and its power to rejoice the 
heart are known no more. If the fountain be impure, 
the stream can scarcely be clear, and highly improb- 
able would it be, that a pure and true theology should 
ever arise from a clumsy and erroneous version. 

The multitude of pious men and women who daily 
read God's word will ever be dependent on a transla- 
tion of it into their own vernacular. They cannot re- 
sort to the original for greater light, and they have not 
time to toss over the pages of a ponderous commenta- 
ry at every difficulty that crosses their path. By mis- 
translations they are confused; the true meaning is not 
obvious to them, and the apparent meaning is, perhaps, 
directly contrary to some other part of Divine truth. 
They look at one another w T ith such amazement as 
filled the builders of Ba,bel when God confounded their 
language; and unable to get along by themselves, they 
must flee for help to their clergy; and under the lead- 
ership of designing and interested guides, they are scat- 
tered over all the earth, and the church of God, once 
made one, is broken into ten thousand fragments. 

Thus, our Lord is represented in our common version, 
as commanding his disciples to take no thought for to- 



200 SPEECH OF JOHN TOffNG, 

morrow, and the truehearted follower of the Savior ad- 
dresses himself to the fulfilment of the Divine injunc- 
tion. The food of to-day is gone, but he makes no pro- 
vision for the day that is to come. Its morning dawns, 
his children rise and cry to him for bread, but he stops 
their mouths with King James' Bible, and tells them 
that they must be careful for nothing. The merchant's 
bills become due, one to-morrow, another next week, 
and a third the week after; but he is a good man, and, 
through respect for the law of Christ, he takes no 
thought for these matters, and makes no provision to 
meet his banker's notice. His bills are protested — his 
credit is gone — his business is wound up — his house 
and furniture are sold at half their value; and when at 
last discontent and impatience make him seek to fath- 
om the mystery, his preacher gravely tells him, that he 
was only led a little astray by a faulty translation, and 
that the passage, so far from discouraging thought, only 
countermanded "over anxiety!" Hear how warmly that 
controversy wages between a Calvinist and an Armini- 
an; but the Calvinist soon seems the victor, for he 
quotes the text, "As many as were ordained to eternal 
life believed." At this his opponeut stands aghast. 
He says it must mean something else, he knows not 
what. He protests that to make faith the mere effect 
of a Divine decree, is to reduce man to the position of 
a machine, to destroy our instinctive sense of freedom 
and responsibility, and to render the Almighty partial 
and unjust. He speaks sensibly, yet the passage haunts 
him like a ghost, it troubles his very dreams. He can- 
not answer its position, and to cut it out he dare not. 
Now who will venture to deny that it would go far to- 
wards hushing up this angry strife if it can be shown, 
as Dr. Whitby supposes he has done, by an appeal to 
the classics, that this word tetagmenoi has the sense of 
the middle voice, and means simply "to be inclined, or to 
have set one's self for an object." "As many as were 
disposed for eternal life believed." 

Again, a war is waged between a sceptic and a 
Christian. The sceptic boldly declares that he can 
prove the Bible to be false and contradictory. James, 
he urges, tells us that, God "tempteth no man;" bu* 






SPEECH OF JOHN YOUNG. 201 

Moses flatly contradicts him, and says that, God did 
"tempt Abraham!" Both cannot be true, but both may 
be false; and the aseptic triumphs. Meantime, there 
chances to come by a man who has heard some Revis- 
ion speeehe3, and learned a secret or two — and he soon 
turns the tables by showing from the history that Moses" 
words were falsely rendered; for on that occasion God 
did not tempt Abraham, but only tried him, and made 
his faith shine out as seven times refined. 

But you say that, it is the work of the preacher to set 
these matters right and correct the errors! Then you 
proclaim the iiisuiiieiency of the Bible, and make the 
ministry, and not the Book, the real depository of truth. 
A dogma more popish in its origin, more subversive of 
the rights of the people, and better calculated to build 
up a dogmatical hierarchy, than this one, cannot be 
found in Christendom. It simply takes the key of know- 
ledge out of the hands of the people, and safely lodges 
it with the priest. I had as soon go to Rome, and give 
;t to the Pope at once! If I cannot decide upon the 
true meaning of the Bible for myself, how can I tell 
whether to follow the monk with shaven crown, or the 
reverend son of Geneva? 

Our Protestant reformers well knew that it was allim- 
portant to give to the world good translations of the 
sacred writings. For this object they labored, suffered, 
and even died. They well knew that the breathing 
statues which seem instinct with life, displaying every 
vein and muscle of the human frame, were not hewn 
out in a day nor finished in a year, but passed through a 
slow and pains taking process of retouching, until they 
finally almost reached perfection, and excited the ad- 
miration and applause of after ages. And most pa- 
tiently and industriously were they applying their skill 
and learning, in graduallv improving and perfecting 
the English^Bible. The Wickliffes, . Tyndals, Cover- 
dales, Cranmers, and their co-workers seemed well to 
understand the vast importance of their work, and the 
slow and sure steps by which alone it could approach 
perfection. Their progress was a good and healthy 
one — it proved that the true life and power of Protest- 
ant love of truth was there — gradually reanimating the 



202 SPEECH OF JOHN YONXG. 

dead mass of Catholic formality. But anon, a rude and 
tyrannical king stepped in and arrogated to himself 
the honors of this work. He understood not the natu- 
ral unfolaings of the true, healthful process, and when 
his work was done, he must arrest the whole current of 
progress. His acts of Parliament must bind the work 
with ail its imperfections upon future generations. 

And when a King of England had graciously conde- 
scended to have the Bibble translated, who would dare 
to find fault with the result? The court flatterers and 
the pensioned clergy would most earnestly compete for 
the honor of praising it. And woe betide the wight 
who would dare to say that, a work so done, under the 
guidance of kingly wisdom and episcopal dignity, had 
aught of human imperfection in it. 

Who does not know that when kingly authority inter- 
feres with either the Bible or the church of God, the 
very touch is "death to the life principle of true religion? 
There stand the liturgy and the canons of the English 
Church, a mere relic of ancient formalism. The sign- 
ing with the cross, the form of absolution, and the 
strange marriage rite, saying, "with my body I thee 
worship," have caused many a sigh on the part of the 
true and intelligent ministers of that church. But 
sighs are useless, and attempts at- reformation danger- 
ous for they are ail cemented together by acts of Par- 
liament, and there they must remain, like grim skele- 
tons, to mock the spirit of the age; for any attempt to 
reform the abuses, w^uld confound canons, liturgies 
and creeds, and even the fat salaries of the Bishops, 
in awful ruin. 

In America only can true religious progress be found. 
America first threw the policies of nations and the 
forms of government into the crucible, and produced a 
system better than them all. America first released 
the church from being the pensioned slave or hireling 
of the State. She took the captive Church of God out 
of the prison-house, struck off her fetters, bid her 
breathe freely Heaven's gales, and regain the 
firm step and energy of youth. And America is now 
summoned to release the Bible from its groaning bond- 
age, under false rules of translation. Why, in reason 1 * 



SPEECH OF JOHN YOUNG. 203 

name, should the "old ecclesiastical words" now be pre- 
served? It may have suited the policy of King- James 
to prevent the word "congregation" from appearing in 

his great national Bible. But must Americans ever 
bow to him, even when he commands God's word to he 
sacrificed? 

America first look the church of God oft" the founda- 
tion of bayonets and acts of Parliament, and set her 
down upon her ancient pedestal of truth; and America 
must feed that church with the bread of Heaven, God's 
pure word, that she may become strong, conquer all the 
th, and hasten the millenium. And who, of all the 
parties in America, are fit to lead this great movement 
of the age? Baptists first built themselves upon the Bi- 
ble and eschewed the creed. Others could get their re- 
ligion from Henry the Eighth, or draw their sprinkling 
from John Calvin, and the sacred authority of a bare 
majority in the Westminster Assembly. But before 
God I say it, Baptists can get theirs only from the 
Bible. If the Bible decides against them, then they 
are ruined indeed, for they have no other stay or helper 
but God's pure word. If any unfairness, then, or cov- 
ering up of God's truth exists upon the face of the 
English Bible, we owe it to ourselves, to the church 
I to the world, tothe present time and to future ages, 
to stand up like men, and solemnly, in the face of 
Heaven and before men, to correct the error. 

I am amazed at the timidity of some Baptists just at 
this point. They know and feel in their inmost souls, 
that ther- has been concealment and a covering up 
process carried on in the manufacture of this common 
version. They know that the church of God has a 
right to the whole truth, without subterfuge or evasion; 
yet they are so frowned upon by interested and excited 
parties around, that they tremble to speak out and de- 
mand all their rights. Thank heaven, there are men 
who arc not to be frowned into, silence, and cowed into 
dishonesty, even by the power of the great American 
Bible society. There are men who cannot be forced 
into the pitiable attitude of giving pure versions to the 
heathen, but through fear shrink back from the task of 
giving an equally pure version to the millions who 
speak the English tongue. 



204 bPEECH OF JOHN YOUNG. 

Where are now the sermons, criticisms, and pamph- 
lets which a groaning Baptist press has been pouring 
out, in proof that baptizo means to immerse? Where, I 
say, are the Eastern brethren of ours, and their learn- 
ed writings? They verily convinced the public, the 
word meant to immerse, and that it should have been 
so rendered. But now they are silent as death, and 
even dismayed at the work of their own hands. Their 
tune is changed, and they tell us that baptize is a good 
Saxon word, and has a very definite meaning. They 
have sounded out immerse with trumpet voice among 
the ignorant Pagans of India, and are they now too timid 
to put it in an English version, and submit their fate 
to the scholarship of America and England. 

Give me the men, good and true, who, like the sign- 
ers of our glorious Declaration of Independence, when 
they have got possession of a great principle, manifest 
no faltering in its defense, but trusting* to its eternal 
truthfulness, pledge to it their lives, their fortunes, and 
their sacred honor. These are the men by whom I am 
surrounded this day, and I glory in the thought that I 
form an humble unit in such a host. 

Now, the -resolution put into my hands declares that 
a pure version will have a happy influence in uniting 
the divided followers of the Savior. It will not be able 
to unite those who believe only the Bible, with those 
who believe the decrees of all the Popes and all the 
councils. Our rules of faith are not the same, and 
they never can be harmonized. Neither can we hope 
to unite with those who interpret the Bible by the prac- 
tices of the church and the writings of the Fathers 
during the first four centuries. Our roads are different 
altogether. Their path leads directly to Rome and 
Popery; ours carries us straight to Jerusalem, that we 
may meet with Christ and the Apostles. 

Our anticipated revision may not even entirely con- 
ciliate those who exalt reason above the Bible, and cor- 
rect Paul and Jesus by Plato and the light within. We 
do not aim to teach the Bible what to say; we only 
mean to let it utter its own behests after its own fash- 
ion, and then if it does not agree with the beautiful 
speculations of the philosophers, we are sorry that 



SPEECH OF JOHN YOUNG. 205 

there should be any difference between God and great 
men, but we cannot help it. Nay, there are people 
wedded more closely to their sect and system, than ev- 
er Eve was to Adam. These we fear are dull of hear- 
ing. Their eyes have they closed to the charms of 
truth — we may not gain them. But above and beyond 
all these, there are millions of God-fearing, honest men 
and women, who long to know the truth, and who have 
prepared themselves to do it when known. On behalf 
of these we labor. Our hearts sympathize with their 
difficulties. We know their troubles, for we have felt 
the same. They mourn over the scattered ruins, the 
disjecta membra of God's once united church. They 
hang their harps upon the willows, and refuse to sing 
the Lord's song in a strange land. We would now 
cheer these in their despondency, and assure them that 
a brighter day is dawning on the earth. The streaks 
of morning appear above the mountain tops — truth is 
gradually ascending in the horizon, and her fast friends 
are rallying strong and following the morning star of 
hope. 

The Word of God — pure as gold, sweet as honey, 
and powerful even as the sword of the Lord and of 
Gideon — yea, the pure word of God is our watchword; 
it is inscribed on the banner that we have unfurled be- 
fore the nations of the earth, and if this banner of the 
Prophets, Apostles, and Martyrs cannot gather into one 
the scattered hosts of the Lord, then shall we never see, 
union on earth, for nothing else can do it. But there 
is much true ground of hope. Critics and scholars of true 
eminence, above the reach of party influence, are much 
more nearly agreed as to the meaning of the Bible, 
than would at first be believed, were it not in proof. The 
spirit of heavenly love is melting down the antago- 
nism of party bitterness and strife. The spirit of free 
inquiry is abroad in the land, and it will never cease 
until it reaches truth in science and religion. The 
friends of a pure version belong to different parties, 
and are tinged with all the peculiarities of the schools 
to which they respectively belong; yet love and harmo- 
ny have thus far marked every step in their progress. 
They offer to each other no compromise of principle, 
18 



206 SPEECH OF JOHtf YOUNG?. 

and they boast not that one is going to the other; but 
all are trying to get nearer to Christ. While on all 
sides we solemnly pledge ourselves, that when a pure 
and faithful version is made, we will bow to its authori- 
ty, and sacrifice upon the altar of a common Christiani- 
ty, all peculiarities, theories, and notions, which are 
not justified and sustained by the clear authority of 
God's Holy Word. 

God and angels are this day witnesses of the con- 
tract. The spirit of peace and love will bless it, and 
make it lasting as Eternity, while future generations 
will rise up and see its results in a united church, built up- 
on the Rock of Ages, and shining fair as the moon, 
clear as the sun, and terrible as an army with ban- 
ners. 



SPEECH OF JOHN YOUNG, 

Delivered before the American Bible Society. 

Certainly no book has ever occupied so large a place 
in human attention as the Bible. 

It has attracted to it the study of the greatest minds 
of the world, and yet it is the every day book of the 
unlearned and humble poor. To the learned it pre- 
sents heights of mystery and depths of profound 
thought, requiring all his skill to measure; and to the 
unlearned, it offers truth, self-evident as the light of 
the sun, and capable of being understood and enjo 
by every intelligent creature under Heaven. It has al- 
so, in every age, been a rallying point of intellectual 
strife. Its friends have counted the amount of its 
words, and numbered up its very letters. They have 
pinned its precepts upon the borders of their garments, 
painted them upo;) the walls jof their sacred houses, 
multiplied its copies without bounds or limit. It has 
laid its spell upon their hearts, guided their lives, been 
the foundation of their hopes, and the solace of their 
death, while its enemies have assailed its truthfulness, 
insulted its purity, gloried in their ability to resist all 
its influences, and hoped for the time, when in disgrace, 
it would be driven out from the abodes of men. Yet, 
though its advent has stirred up all these waters of bit- 
terness, and roused this angry and ceaseless warfare, 
it is not a book of war, but of peace. It breathes forth 
the spirit of peace, of love, and of gentleness in every 
page, and never will the tumults of earthly selfishness 
be quelled until its voice is heard and obeyed to earth's 
utmost bounds. 

It has been appealed to by the most opposite parties, 
and used for the most heterogeneous purposes. The 
fiery zealot has called upon the Bible to authorize and 
sanctify his bloody deeds of persecution, done in the 
insulted name of religion. The tyrant has fortified 
his throne, and rendered his sceptre more terrible, by 



208 SPEECH OF JOHN YOUNG. 

arguing from its pages the right Divine of Kings to 
rule, and vassals to obey, while the sufferer and the 
oppressed have clasped it to their bosom, lived upon 
its promises, and practised its holy spirit in the forgive- 
ness of their enemies. 

It holds up, continually, one God to worship, one Re- 
deemer to love, one Church to enfold all God's servants 
in her embrace, and one Heaven to reward the toils of 
all good men. Yet its interpretation, or perhaps more 
properly, its misinterpretation, has divided Christendom 
into a thousand sects — each claiming to hold the truth 
and nothing more, and yet each ready to spurn that 
truth when it discountenances their views or policies. 

The Bible, like the Savior and Lord of the Bible, 
has been assailed by enemies, forsaken by friends, 
wounded most severely by those loudest in protesting 
their love to it, and yet through the thickest of the 
light, after lying a public spectacle of death-like ghast- 
liness, the spirit of life has re-entered these two wit- 
nesses, they have ascended up on high, and a reformed 
world is now preparing itself to deal more righteously 
with the Bible, than she ever did before. The compre- 
hensiveness of its historical revelations is truly wonder- 
ful. It opens its history with the dawn of creation, and 
the first hour of time is marked and measured by its 
first author, while, after having swept with eagle wing 
over the world's history, and embodied in its pages the 
most interesting events of time, past, present, and to 
come, it finally drops the curtain upon the end of earth 
and the final redemption of the sons of God. It stretch- 
es into the darkness of the past, and amidst the mists 
of fabulous antiquity, it guides our steps to true and 
rational results. It glorifies the present with the pow- 
er of light and love Divine, while soaring far above the 
stars of Heaven, it leaves us in the presence chamber 
of the great Creator of all worlds. 

My object, however, is not to pronounce a panegyric 
upon the Bible. Compliments cost little to the utlerer, 
and are worth little to the hearer; but I will try to show 
you what this book does for men, and thus give it a 
place, if I can, in your judgments, as a book deserving 
of all gratitude and submission. 



SPEECH OF JOHN YOUNG. 201* 

We live now under the full light of a Divine re\ 
tion, and filled as we have been from earliest y 
with that light, we can hardly picture to, ourselves the 
gross darkness of an antediluvian age. 

Yet there was a time when men lived only to eat, to 
drink, to plant, to build, to fight, and finally to die. 
When, occupied almost exclusively with earthly thi 
vice reigned predominant — God's existence was ha 
known — his will was no rule of life, and only the t 
bleness of his power was felt by men when hur 
them into ruin. Our records of antediluvian time- 
brief indeed — for this, perhaps, we should be thank !. 
No profit could result to us from a more intimati ac- 
quaintance wiih men without a God; creatures who 
had blotted out the image of the Creator, once impres- 
sed upon their humanity, and who, in violence, in w 
in cruelty, and in base passions, had sunk not to a 
cl with brutes that perish, but to a depth of degr, 
.tion unequalled on this footstool of the Almighty. Yet 
.wisdom was within their reach. The eternal power 
and Godhead of a Creator, written as with a sunbi 
upon the starry h and reflected through e; 

and sea, was surely as palpably before their eyes as be- 
fore ours, but yet they saw it not. 

The b( utility, and Divine excellence of 

actions would see;. t self-evident, 

deformity, and abhorrent nature of others are so obvi- 
ous as to carry their condemnation on their face. Yet, 
men lived in our world for thousands of years, conver- 
sant with all the instinctive sense of right and wrong 
that can be supposed naturally to belong to the race, 
and yet they al te evil, neither chose they 

the good. 

am far from thinking that the evidences of Creat- 
ing power, and of a Creator's wisdom are hard to find 
in Creation. T open every where 3 soliciting our 

attention. If a c( ted piece of mechanism, with 

its numerous pinions, and contrivances, all 

tending to the e pre-contemplat< 

proves a work nan, and cannot arise from chapce,.thcn, 
surely, creation ima a God. The u their 

courses, weighed, balanced, and their motions regula- 
18* 



210 SPEECH OV JOHN YOUNG. 

ted with, mathematical precision, proclaim as they move, 
"that the hand that made them is Divine." Every 
plant and tree, carried by the regularity of the seasons 
through its nice history of growth, maturity, declension, 
and re-production, becomes a living proof, ever fresh 
and new, of a present Deity. The animal creation, in 
its endless variety of form, character, and adaptation 
to circumstances, impresses us with solemn awe, in 
contemplating wisdom and goodness expending them- 
selves in the creation of life and happiness. But above 
all, in the mind of man, has the Creator ^reflected his 
own image and likeness. If the eye of the poet could 
behold the form of the Almighty, glassing itself 
in tempest, in the ocean, surely much more in the pow- 
ers of the mind do we behold a reflection of Jehovah. 
The memory that calls back into new life the annihi- 
lated past, the hope that pierces through the dim vista 
of years, and anticipates things to come, and the judg- 
ment that sits like a God, holding in its hand the helm 
of life, and separating the evil from the good, undis- 
cernable as they are to the senses, yet controlling and 
impelling ail the actions of men, these, I say, are sure- 
ly present types of the Divine Spirit, hiding itself 
amidst the clouds, unapproachable by the senses, but 
manifested by a creation, instinct with life and regu- 
lated by wisdom. 

Strange, surely, that the eye of man has so rarely 
detected these traces of a Creator, and that the ear has 
been so dull in hearing the voice Divine, on which hangs 
all our hopes. Yet, history proclaims the astonishing 
fact, that these mines of truth were unexplored of old, 
and their moral influence, consequently, were lost upon 
a world without a God — Gods there were indeed in 
olden times — numerous, almost, as men. The heavens 
had their Gods, every hill and valley, sea and river, 
were full of Divinities. All the actions of men, war,hus 
ban dry, love, marriage, and even drunkenness, had 
their presiding Deities, and the clashing of elemental 
strife was supposed to arise from the wars of these ob- 
jects of their worship. 

Amidst all this the unity of the Creator was un- 
thought of. A presiding mind, a central soul of the 
world, was the discovery of later times- — the product of 
an age of mind. 



8PEECH OF JOHN YOUNG. 211 

Yet, the unity of God is fully taught by creation* 
The same God that made the eye of man, made, also, 
the sun to shine upon it. The God of the dry land has 
commanded the sea to send up its vapors and scatter 
its waters upon the thirsty ground. 

The animals we call amphibious, belong to the do- 
main of two Divinities, and thus upon the ancient theo- 
ry, would have been the joint product of both. The 
universe seems divided into its vast systems of starry 
worlds, but comets sweep through all space, binding 
systems into a universal brotherhood, and proclaiming 
aioud that there is one Jehovah. Where, then, saya 
the objecter, is the need of a Revelation when upon 
your own showing, all creation is a Bible. Yes, but 
'tis a Bible somewhat hard to be read, and requires 
skill, intelligence, and a patient induction, which rarely 
has been the lot of earth's toiling millions. 

Hold you, you say to that parent who is patiently 
teaching his children to walk in the ways of wisdom. 
Let these children alone. They will learn to reason 
without the aid of rules. They will find the good and 
bad of human life by trial, and eventually after a 
thousand failures they will discover natural laws of 
themselves. But the parent heeds not such counsel. 
He knows that their youth would pass by in giddy fri- 
volity, and the fountains of knowledge be still unsealed. 
He knows that experience to them would be a sever* 
teacher, so severe, indeed, that they might die in the 
seasoning. He knows that by his kind assistance more 
can be learned in a year than they, unassisted, could 
find out through life. He, therefore, teaches on, and 
mocks at the objections of the sceptic. So God speaks 
through the Bible, and a new light dawns on the world. 
He opens the ears of prophets and makes their hearts 
swell with truths more glorious than had ever entered 
into the human mind to conceive. These men pro- 
claim their message aloud, and record it for the use of 
after generations. 

And w ide as their discoveries are known, is the dark- 
ness of superstition driven away, and the worship of 
One true and living God ^established. Judaism may 
■eem to us cold and harsh when compared with th« 



212 SPEECH OF JOHN YOUNG. 

Jove and mercy of Christianity, but it contained more 
truth than the ancients were well capable of receiving, 
and as far as Heaven is above Earth, so far was it 
above all human systems of religion. Instead of leav- 
ing morality to be decided by the vague impressions of 
right which rise spontaneously in the mind, it set up a 
standard of conduct which has challenged the scrutiny 
of the world, and never met with a successful objector. 
The Ten Commandments, though recorded on ta 
of stone might well have been graven on plates of 
gold. 

In comprehensiveness they are inimitable, covering 
the whole ground of human conduct as affecting Grod, 
our neighbor or ourselves; yet their brevity is such that 
their co a tern ts can be mastered in an hour, and, like a 
faithful monitor, they could attend the Jew in his out- 
goings and incomings, and direct him in all his ways. 

fuet our Missionaries carry them over the world now, 
and nowhere need they fear to meet any cede of Is 
able to rival them in simplicity, grandeur, or ility 

to human life. Yet these formed only the twilight of 
Earth's illumination. They were only the droppings 
precedent to that full shower of pearly tri 
fell so thickly in the teaching of the man of eth. 

Behold the world bathed in the blood of her ten thous- 
and wars. See men hateful and hatmg one another. 
See tyranny fortifying itself with cruelty, - amp- 

ling upon the weakness of nations. Mark >iler 

glorying in his rapine, and the debauchee in his lust. 
Hear the groans of afflicted .humanity that find no 
helper. Then see the utter failure of all human re: e- 
dies, and you then come -to the teaching of J, 
Nazareth as to a well of life indeed. Above the 
of human passion his voice is heard stilling the t: 
pest and proclaiming peace. When he found men hid- 
ing themselves from the anger of Divinity, he all? 
their terrors, healed their diseases, introduced them to 
the infinite love of his great father in the heavens. Peace, 
righteousness, brotherly love and charity, find their no- 
blest illustrations in his doctrine and his life; and as he 
dies, he leaves to the world a code of principles such 
as angels raigfc delight to study and obey; He ako 



SPEECH OF JOHN YOUNG. 213 

breathes out in his dying prayer, a I ich finds no 

parallel on Earth — a love self-consuming as the flame 
of Sappho — devoted as the patriotism of Leonidas — 

unselfish as the patient tenderness of parent towards 
child — but, unlike all other love it captivates the hearts, 
not of a few admirers, but of the general humanity. Un- 
der its inspirations the Apostles urge their way through 
dangers, snares, and death. In return for it an army 
of martyrs, perish in the flames. Its vibrations i 
now felt to Earth's utmost bounds, and, like the genial 
heat of spring, it causes a garden of graces to grow 
where barrenness and desolation reigned before. 

Did our Bible consist of only the Ten Command- 
ments, it would be well worth circulating over all the 
world, but when these laws are >e-edited, expanded, 
and bathed in the love of God by God's own Son, they 
become at once the light and life of the world, and 
whether they shine in the Bible, they raise it above all 
other books, or shine in the church of God, they make 
that society glorious as the sun, fair as the moon and 
reverential as the depository of the Divine glory. We 
are conscious, however, that in our expositions thus far, 
of the great truths of Divine revelation, we have not 
been doing full justice to God's plan of reforming the 
world. We have been abstracting these principles 
from their historical connexions, and looking at them 
thus isolated and alone, bat God has set them up to 
viesv, surrounded on all sides by t! >ry of the tii: 

when they were unfolded. 

While the Bible is evolving its first truth, that there 
is one God — the Creator, it is also giving us a pano- 
ramic view of a world lying in wickedness, and becom- 
ing too vile to live, and impressing us with the wondcr- 
ous contrast of God's servants, whose souls wer-e en 
larged by knowledge and love, laboring for the good of 
their race and showing by their toils and sacrifices, that, 
of them the world was not worthy. 

When, too, the moral law r is given, there rises up 
around it a galaxy of illustrious characters, Moses, 
Joshua, Samuel, and the Prophets, challenge our ad- 
miration. True, their deeds are not celebrated aa 
those of heroes in the glowing language of poetry. 



214 SPEECH OF JOHN YOUNG. 

Neither does eloquence draw upon its resources to cov- 
er their defects and increase their virtues, but with a 
power of description true even to life, they speak and 
act before us. We are charmed by their simplicity, we 
are captivated by their benevolence, and in their com- 
munion we imbibe their spirit and make advances in 
the true road to greatness. 

Our own National Statesmen and Patriots we admire 
and imitate, but we look beyond their lives to an age of 
darkness and barbarism, and from the thick gloom 
there look down upon us a great army of witnesses, 
who wrought righteousness, stopped the mouths of li- 
ons, and formed the pioneers in the rugged -toils of re- 
claiming the moral wastes of a sin stricken world. 

And if their numbers still increase around us in the 
days of Jesus of Nazareth, it is surely not wonderful. 
They had now a more glorious leader than Moses. He 
had not been merely up for a few days upon the Mount 
of God, amid the darkness and the thunder, but from 
his native heavens he came, and the feelings and utter- 
ances of Heaven he spake jn the language of men on 
Earth. The sbiaiug of feis face lasted not for days 
like the face of Moses, but in life and death the splen- 
dor of Divine attributes illustrated his character. He 
was the image of the invisible God — the first born of 
every creature — the brightness of the Father's glory, 
the express image of his person. The Apostles and 
early church had a near view of his glory, and were 
changed into toe same image from glory to glory, even 
as by the Spirit of the Lord, 

And yet this amount of beatific vision remains with 
us to the present day. We have Moses and the Proph- 
ets, Christ and the Apostles, and like the vision of the 
mountain full of horses of fire and chariots of fire, 
they come to open our ©yes, to banish our fears, and 
point the way of our deliverance. Shall we suffer this 
heavenly flame to wax low through our negligence and 
inactivity, or shall we not rather kindle these lights on 
every hill-top until the darkness of the Earth has given 
place, and the Divine glory is reflected among all na- 
tions. 

There are some professed friends of the Bible who 



SPEECH OF JOHN YOUXG. 2 1 # 

would limit its true range of influence, and hem it i n 
on every side. They tell us that the political light it 
gives is un suited to modern times, and that its know- 
ledge of natural laws and phenomena is either meagre 
or untrustworthy; but that it can yet well teach men 
how to sing, to pray, and what creed they should be- 
lie . 

Now, I must confess, that a religion which begins and 
ends by singing psalms, repeating prayers, and pro- 
nouncing creeds would, I fear, be little worth in this 
bustling world of ours. Instead of this I will venture 
to affirm, tliat the bestpolitics of ancient times, are the 
politics of the Bible. 

The science of government does not now seem to be 
a very hard one to discover, or reduce to practice. 
Every man reserves to himself all liberty, except where 
its exercise would interfere with the general well-being, 
and he delegates power to be exercised only in defining 
the boundaries of liberty, and securing its full enjoy- 
ment. We cannot but believe that, to the men of an- 
cient times, liberty was dear, yet they sold it for a mess 
of pottage. In every nation the multitudes succumbed 
without a struggle to some one whom chance or strength 
had made king over them. 

He clothed himself in royal robes — he gathered thous- 
ands to wait upon him — whom he would he slew, and 
whom he would he kept ali 

The people fed him upon flattery — they trembled be- 
fore his frown, and their unrequited toils enriched his 
treasure-house. 

Egypt, Assyria, Chaldea, and all the ancient world 
had made them kings to reign over them, and liberty 
was hardly known in human speech. When God set 
the world an example of the first Federative Republic, 
Moses made his brother a priest, but he carefully fore- 
bore to make himself a king. His successor, too, had 
in him no drop of Moses' blood,, yet he admirably suit- 
ed the station — bold in war, expert in counsel, submis- 
sive to Divine authority. Joshua had no peer among 
ancient heroes, and, like our own Washington, he re- 
joices when the din of battle ceased, t > retire to his lit- 
tle farm and teach the people how to be happy in 



318 SPEECH OF JOHN YOUNG. 

peaceful citizenship; rather than erect a throne and rule 
over them with rigor. 

Then a small but beautiful country, for the first time 
in the world's history, presented the spectacle of a peo- 
ple lately rescued from the most cruel oppression, now 
taught the arts of peace, divided into tribes, and the 
boundaries of their possessions, marked out by justice 
and equity, while the men who have toiled and suffered 
to give them this redemption, attempt no usurpation 
and grasp at no honor, but are content to be forever 
"first in the hearts of their countrymen." How won- 
derful to note that the first colony planted by God's own 
hand, should adopt the plan of a federative republic, 
with one chief magistrate, and that, after the lapse of, 
thousands of years, when every possible form of govern- 
ment, monarchy, absolute and limited, aristocracy and 
turbulent democracy, have all been tried and found 
wanting, that the wisest statesmen and noblest patriots 
of modern times should return to the Divine model, 
and build up the hopes of liberty upon a foundation 
laid by God, originally in Palestine. When the soul of 
the illustrious Patrick Henry was fired to enthusiasm 
with the love of freedom, and the hatred of kingly 
tyranny, he exclaimed, in accents never to be forgot- 
ten, "Give me liberty or give me death," he yet had 
not any clearer view of the evils of absolute power in 
the hands of one man, than was possessed by Samuel, 
the prophet of God. You ask, said he, a King, and he 
will speedily take your sons to wait at his table, to run 
before his chariots, to ear his fields, and make his in- 
struments of war; they will become his bearers of bur- 
dens and ministers to all his pleasures. Your daugh- 
ters he will employ in his kitchen, and for servants in 
his household; your fields, your vineyards-, your olive 
yards, shall be his, the products of your industry he will 
seize upon as gifts for his pampered favorites, and when 
you feel the grinding hoof of despotism upon you, you 
will cry to God for help against your king, but the ear 
of Heaven shall be shut against your prayer. But the 
people turned from the warning of the prophet, and 
their history soon exceeded the prediction. By the 
wars of their kings they were impoverished; by their 



: i 



SPEECH OF JOHN YOl/NG. 217 

idolatries they were corrupted; and through their mia- 
government they finally were conquered by a terrible 
enemy, and carried into a far country to hang their 
harps upon the willows, and sing, not the songs of Zion. 
but the lament of the captive. 

Their nationality was gone, their hopes were blasted, 
their city burned with fire, and bleeding and torn, 
they fall back upon the mercy of that God whose au- 
thority they had rejected and despised. But the 
prospect of Earth's redemption was not yet extinct. In 
the days of these kings, the God of Heaven had prom- 
ised to set up a kingdom, one too, that should not fall 
as a spoil before the mighty, but grow and fill the 
whole Earth. 

The inspired poets of ancient times sang their lofti- 
est strains in anticipation of its coming. The prophets 
felt a new afflatus of Divinity when they began to de- 
scribe its grandeur and its spread. The golden temple 
of Solomon, with all its splendid pomp of worship, 
fades away before its heavenly beauties. The life of 
one nation, and the hopes of wise men of all nations, 
hang upon its coming. Prepare ye the way of the 
Lord. Let every valley be exalted, and every moun- 
tain be brought low. Let all flesh see it together — Ho- 
sannah to the son of David. But who is this? Here 
comes an humble man, the son of Mary, no purple 
robes adorn him, no w r ell trained hosts attend his will, 
no glittering steel and nodding plumes proclaim the 
conqueror. The trappings of royalty are gone, and the 
throne of David may crumble into dust forever. Dis- 
appointment seizes the multitude, and rage fills the bo- 
soms of their leaders. The hosannahs have died away 
from every tongue, and now they cry away with him, 
away with him, crucify him, erucy him, we w r ill have no 
king but Caesar. 

Yet is he the King of Truth, and the King of Glory, 
and when the smoke of the deadly conflict has cleared 
away, we behold Messiah, the Prince, enthroned in 
Heaven, and a republic of churches spreading them- 
selves to Earth's utmost bounds. 

Never was there among pien an institution of such 
inimitable simplicity as the church of Christ. It has no 
10 



218 SPEECH OF JOHN YONNG. 

power to compel submission but the power of faith ritod 
love. Yet millions of Earth's noblest sons and daugh- 
ters gladly seek its heavenly fellowship. It has no 
Mecca for its shrine, no Rome for its metropolitan 
power, and not even a Jerusalem for its centre, for 
there its Lord was crucified, but the broad world is its 
field, and the hearts of regenerated humanity its 
throne. Its members are often poor, and retire far from 
the glitter of fashion and ths pomp of power. 

But they are taught that the soul of man is a glori- 
ous and a heaven-born thing, reaching in its aspirations 
far beyond the world, and they will never more surren- 
der it to any power but that of God. Their char- 
acters are elevated, their spirits enlarged, their souls 
are free, for their teacher has taught them to call no 
man master, and ever when the crisis comes, to obey 
God rather than men. But the wise men cf the world 
look upon them, and shaking their heads, they say they 
can not stand, that they will speedily be scattered, di- 
vided and destroyed. Their faith, say they, is too loose, 
too confused, and wants the order and precision 
which system could give. But the world was mistaken, 
fftr they had a faith that was to them the well spring of 
life. They fully believed that Jesus was the Messiah 
who had died for their sins, and risen for justification, 
They loved him for his toils, and they would obey him 
even unto death. Their religion entered not into nice 
distinctions, and loved not subtle and ingenious specu- 
lations, but it developed a love that subdued all things 
to itself, that bound the whole family together, that cov- 
ered over all apparent defects, and that carried the re- 
ligion of Jesus over the then civilized world. 

We now rummage the New Testament to find an ex- 
act plan of church government, but the plan we find 
suits not our taste. We find assemblies meeting to 
study truth and worship God. Their old men preside 
in their meetings while the apostles send them epistles, 
or pay them occasional visits. 

But were these assemblies exactly alike? Were they 
fully organized, and were they drilled into form, like the 
rank and file of an imperial army? I answer, no! We 
put our telescopes to our eyes and scrutinize every nook 



-SPEECH OP JOHN YOUNG. 219 

•and corner of primitive Christianity, Rome, Epheseus. 
Corinth, Jerusalem. The stately bishops with their 
lawn sleeves can not be seen. The ecclesiastical assem- 
blies trying the causes, adjusting the disputes, and accu- 
rately defining the boundaries of orthodoxy, are no 
where apparent. How strange the oversight that the 
Churches' head should leave his followers with his truth 
in their hands to judge for themselves what this char- 
ter of their liberties contains, and to settle their own 
difficulties, amenable only to the great judge qf all. 
Yet it is all explained, by keeping in mind that God is, 
by the gospel, fitting men for self-government, raising 
them above superstition and priestly domination, teach- 
ing them to think for themselves and to act for them- 
selves, even as they must at last be judged for them- 
selves. Turn again your telescope to the eighth cen- 
tury, and a new scene opens to your view. Here the 
boundaries of faith are all well defined, and the here- 
sies and heretics are universally damned. There stands 
Authority, grim, and terrible, with the lash and the 
dungeon at its back. Here too, is order, from the beg- 
ging monk, lowest in the scale, up to God's vicegerent. 
Dirt, alas! alas! Christendom is again a moral desert, 
the soul of man i< dwarfed, crippled and confined; love, 
charity, and mercy are gone, and unpitying despotism 
holds their place. Then the true spirits of God's saints 
are crying out for deliverance, and anticipating again 
the dawning of true gospel liberty. 

Heaven help us, we thought that differences were in- 
tolerable, that want of authority was a sad defect, like 
the tribes of Israel we w T ere scattered, our enemies for- 
aged our borders, while within, every man did that 
which was right in his own eyes, and we longed for 
kingly power and priestly influence; but we are cured, 
and we will clasp to our bosoms again our bibles as 
our ;true creed. Away forever yvith all complainings 
at the Congregationalism of the early churches. This wap 
their most admirable feature; it enabled them to expand 
and spread among nations wholly unlike in customs 
and in speech. It guarded them forever against all the 
rents and schisms which factionism will ever and anon 
produce in any strictly organized body. 



220 SPEECH OF JOHN YOUNG. 

It made heresies die in their own cradle, affecting' 
only the church where they began, having no arena of 
debate in the synod or church court, and giving them 
no hold on public sympathy through the anathemas 
hurled at them. Even in the present day we are prone, 
every man, to think that unless our remedy for evils be 
used, the body religious must die of its maladies. A 
thousand times we save the church or the state when 
neither are in any danger. God set his church upon a 
great central rock of truth and she stands un- 
hurt amidst the storms. Neither have we faith enough 
inhuman intelligence. The despots of\the old world 
said that Americans never could govern themselves, 
but time proves that a government based in popular in- 
telligence and affection, is the strongest under Heaven. 
The ark of our country is safest on the shoulders of all 
the people. 

So is it with our religion. Priests have clothed them- 
selves with its spoils. Controversialists have stirred up- 
bad blood about its meaning, quacks innumerable have 
cured it of its ills. But before God I say it, a church 
based upon the Messiaship of Jesus, with the love of 
God in her heart, and a well translated Bible in her 
hands, is the most glorious sight under the sun. She 
is then broad, catholic and comprehensive in all her 
views. She is kind, gentle and forbearing as Christ 
her Savior was, and her spirit of ancient power and 
martyr fame is worth to her ten thousand times all the 
forms that church history could exhibit, or our ingenuity 
devise. 

Such a church must prosper and spread exceedingly; 
but if forgetful of the rock whence she was hewn, she 
becomes dogmatic and tyrannical even as others — the 
arm of her strength will be broken. If she looks with 
longing eyes upon the forms of sects around her, she 
may consolidate herself by adopting their order but her 
Joss of true liberty and the cessation of free Bible in- 
vestigation will cover her with the pall of dead formal- 
ism and place the hopes of Earth's reformation in oth- 
er hands and distant times. 

We are assembled this night to encourage each oth- 
er in the work of circulating the Bible. There surely 



mot be a nobler enterprise. In bestowing upon the 
world the Bible, you give a pure literature, redolent 
with (lowers of poetry, warm and impassioned in its 
appeals, even as the orations of Demosthenes, and pre* 
senting scenes as thrilling as the records of chivalry. 
But differ it does from all other literature in this, that 
while you are treading the meanderiugs of its history, 
and your ears are regaled by the sweet songs of Isra- 
el's bards, you are guided by the precepts of the wisest 
sages of antiquity, and the great shepherd of wander- 
ing humanity is leading you back to glory and to God. 

There is, however, one peculiarity of the Bible that 
ought never to be forgotten. It is the only book on 
Earth capable of giving us information concerning a 
future life, and opening to our yiew the portals of eter- 
nity. A future life was to the ancients the greatest of 
all enigmas, and the mystery of mysteries. They did 
not pass it by with disregard as some modern wise men 
seem to do, for no people ever coolly sat them down 
satisfied with the prospect of their own annihilation. 
Bat they sought sedulously for information from this far 
off land, and the gatherings that rewarded their toil 
were small indeed. They studied the appearances of 
the body after death, to see if they could reassure their 
spirits that this destroyer had not made a full end of 
their friends; but no latent heat was there and they 
had to call upon their imagination .to portray the like- 
ness of a spirit hovering still around, as though reluct 
ant tc quit its former tenement. They proved the 
strength of their hold upon life, by embalming the 
bodies of their friends and building them tombs that 
time could not destroy. They sent forth their wisest 
men to travel into distant lands and collect all exist- 
ing knowledge on this soul-stirring topic. But these 
travellers could never meet with any visitants from the 
world of spirits, who could give reliable information 
The writings of the poets, and the traditions of na- 
tions, showed that the belief and hope of a future lift; 
was deep-seated and universal 

They looked into their own hearts and they found 
the desire of it strong in life and ruling still in death. 
They gazed upon the grave, and it offered them only a 
IB* 



2%2 SPEECH OP JOHN YO0NG. 

ghastly corpse. They called to the sea, but it would 
not give up its dead. They cast their eyes upward but 
these orbs of light could tell no tidings of the lost spir- 
it. O! the weight of the dread question, to be or not 
to be* 

The comparison of that terrible abyss of eternal non- 
entity, the poetic hell of purifying torments, formed a 
relief — a sort of resting point on which the soul might 
gaze with a consciousness that it still had life at 
least, if nothing more. Rudely did the storms of life 
blow upon the nations of Paganism; dark and frowning 
were the heavens over their heads; and while the thun- 
der uttered its voice, and the grave yawned beneath 
their feet — -no star of Bethlehem was shining through 
the gloom. No friendly haven, with its vine-clad hills, 
and charming vales, vnd happ)^ populace, animated 
their exertions, and promised at last to reward their 
toils. But the Patriarchs and Prophets saw far off a 
better land. They were gathered to their Fathers, and 
the God of their life was still their God in death and in 
eternity. Their toils, their labors, and faith, proclaim* 
ed aloi:d, that they sought a country and a city, whose 
builder was their God. Were they deceived in this, 
the darling idol of their life? They trod upon the very 
oofines of a spirit land. The visions of the Almighty 
■■fell upon them in their slumbers. Two of their own 
numbers passed into a spirit land, but not through the 
portals of death. 

The Angels of God descend and shed a solemn awe 
around the pillow of the sleeping Jacob. Celestial 
visitants receive the hospitalities of the Father of the 
faithful, and kindle the funeral pile of the Heaven- 
doomed cities. The Captain of a host, not of Earth 
but of Heaven, descends to receive the allegiance of 
Joshua, the new leader of the armies of Israel. Thus 
doors of communication were opened between Earth 
and Heaven. But, last of all, and greatest of all, the 
Word of God, the Wisdom Divine, by which the worlds 
were made, descends; and as the Prince of Peace is 
born, new companies of angels appear on Earth and 
.sing a sweeter song than ever; that joyful shout they 
once set up over a new formed world. "Glory to God 



SPEECH OF JOHN YOUNG 223 

in th© highest, peace, on Earth, and good will towards 
men." These surely were glorious salutations between 
the inhabitants of two worlds, but the way was not yet 
open, and the King of Terror,? was not yet conquered; 
but when the crucified man of Nazareth awoke 'from 
the slumbers of the grave; when he bore aloft the 
gates of death upon his shoulders; and then by the 
power of his word and demonstration of his spirit, 
threw down the pillars of superstition that had stood 
their ground for thousands of years, then, then indeed 
was .life and immortality brought out to light. "O! 
death, where is now thy sting, O! grave, where now thy 
victory." 

Let the poor, but pious, Lazaruses of the world, now 
take courage. Earth is a weary wild to some of its 
.poor travellers. Heaven's bounties are scattered round 
with liberal hand, but these are not for them. King's 
rule and judgment thrones are set — but who shall right 
their wrongs? The minions of official pride drive them 
from the halls, not of justice, but of wrong. Friends 
are gone, and no heart cherishes the memory of their 
woes. Meantime, to crown their sorrows and fill up 
their bitter cup, disease makes silent progress, it saps 
the citadel of life, covers the person with deformity, 
and leaves the dogs to minister to those whom men 
despise. At length the bowl is broken, the wheel i* 
'broken at the aistera, and the emancipated spirit as- 
eends to God. 

Now, at last, the strange mysteries of life are solved. 
David was bewildered when he looked upon the suc- 
cessful wickedness of men, but when their end appear- 
ed, he knew that God reigned. Soul of the pious dead, 
rest thou in peace, thy God has righted all thy wrongs, 
and bottled up all thy tears. The storms are over, the 
winds are still, and thou art moored forever in a haven 
of peace. The spirits of thy fathers gather around 
thee, they recount to thee their toils, and tell thee all 
their sweet experiences. God's great universe now un- 
locks he: storehouses of knowledge, and the emancipated 
spirit puts forth all her powers and fills herself over 
ever, with love and truth divine. But where are now 
thy oppressors? what is the darkness of their lot, tba 



224 SPEECH OF jonn YOUtfG. 

agony of their remorse? Despair! My soul shrinks 
from the thought. Judgments, prisons, and even death, 
are cruel things, but often needful to the state, and 
God has seen them needful arnid his great republic of 
worlds. Kiss then the Son, lest ye perish from the 
way, if once his wrath begin to burn a little. Blessed 
are all those that put their trust in him. 

Send forth then the Bible. Let it go everywhere, 
for every where its soul-inspiring truths are needed. 
God is far off from men, it brings him near. Guilt 
presses down the soul, and fills all minds with dark 
forebodings. It only can remove it far away. Death 
is at hand to cut the present as he has cut down all 
former generations, but in the Bible is a deliverer, his 
form is fairer than the sons of men, and grace is 
poured into his lips, and he proclaims, "I am the resur- 
rection and the life, and he that liveth and believeth in 
.me shall never die." 



TWO LETTERS, 

Proposing an improvement in the Arrangement of Collegf. 

Classes. 

For ihe Christian Age. 

Brother Editor : Our College Classes are now ar- 
ranged after the model of the English Universities, 
and in practice they have shown themselves to be badly 
adapted to the real wants of cur country. 

That there is an evil somewhere in our College Sys- 
tem, all must admit. If our colleges were really suit- 
ed to the public wants, there would not be such great 
difficulty in sustaining them alive as is at present felt. 

Many of the colleges in this state have failed to suc- 
ceed, and become useless buildings. Yet young men 
need education. The present prospects of colleges de- 
mand, then, thorough investigation. We should probe 
the evil to the bottom, and find a remedy if we can. 
I know that I should utter myself with diffidence and 
humility. But I will plead that I have not rushed into 
this work unscnt. I have been regularly called into the 
field. I have answered that call, because I feel myself 
thoroughly posted up in the history and workings of 
literary institutions. 

I think I understand the. evils under which our col- 
leges are laboring. I think, also, that I know the 
remedy. Say now, if you please, that I am imperii 
nent to pretend to such knowledge; that I am impul- 
sive, and my head made giddy by prospective official 
honors. Strike, but hear me, before you decide. I mean 
to move slowly, and to take my own time and way to 
develop the defects under which our college system 
now groans. I have a remedy to offer, and unless 1 
am sadly mistaken indeed, its introduction will secure 
a more thorough education than is now obtained, and 
by its adaptation to the actual wants of society, it 
will give u» at least double the number of students 
that Lave usually attended such places. 



€26 ARRANGEMENT OF COLLEGE CLASSES. 

I ask no man now to believe me in this prophecy. I 
only ask your fair and patient attention to the sugges- 
tions I may hereafter offer. 

The American people are certainly not so stubborn 
in adherence to ancient usage, as to despise a man, who 
respectfully informs them that he has an improvement to 
suggest. They are, perhaps, more in danger of being 
carried away by the flaming pretensions of the dema- 
gogue. If my suggestions have no foundation in truth, 
then I am willing that I should be deemed an imperti- 
nent intermeddler; but if they can be of use, T feel that 
the public have now a right to decide upon their appli- 
cability. 

In the universities and colleges of Europe, a high 
standard of previous training is imperatively required, 
before any public entrance into college classes is ad- 
mitted. Students must have read some five or six au- 
thors in Latin, and three and four in Greek, before they 
can be enrolled as students, or begin to study for a 
degree in arts. 

By this previous labor in a high school, their minds 
are "well disciplined, habits of study are fixed, and the 
professors of the college, relieved from, the drudgery of 
drilling them in the mere elements of classics, are able 
to unfold before them the exceptions and peculiarities 
of language. Hence the labor of these professors is 
light, and one or two hours a day is sufficient to hear 
the recitations of such students. 

With us everything is the reverse of this. Young 
me& come to college without knowing their Latin gram- 
mars, and unableto tell a letter in Greek. They must 
be received into college; for the wishes of the parents 
and the need of their fees equally demand it at our 
hands. Our preparatory departments are formed to 
meet this exigency, but they do not meet it efficiently. 
Young men are very unwilling to stay in a preparato- 
ry department long enough for it to be of real service 
to them. They are naturally anxious to commence 
their college classes as soon as possible, and thus make 
their time available for a speedy graduation. Hence 
tome colleges within my horizon have found it impossi- 



ARRANGEMENT OF COLLEGE CLASSES. 227 

ble to keep up a preparatory department. Let us note 
then carefully the practical workings of our system. 

A youth comes to college because there is no good 
school in his neighborhood, and as a matter of course, 
not even the rudiments of English, Latin, or Mathe- 
matics, have been gained. His education, to be solid 

d successful, must be begun at a very low point. He 
is therefore directed into the preparatory department. 
This of course, is the place he needs, and for which 
only he is qualified; bat h* is soon tired of it, and raw, 
undisciplined, and uninformed as he is, he soon makes 
his way into the college classes. All hope then of his 
ever being educated, enters at once in the efficiency of 
these classes. If they are efficient, and he spends 
much time in them, he may become a scholar, but if 
they are unsuitable to his degree of advancement, then 
are his chances lost: he drags through his classes, fills 
out his time, and for pity's sake, receives a diploma, to 
which, on the ground of scholarship, he can claim no 
title. 

Now, I am bold to affirm that our college classes, as 
at present arranged, are badly fitted to carry a young 
man through all the drudgery of Latin, Greek, and 
Mathematics. I now make my appeal to all who have 
studied these branches in a high school: Was the work 
and drugery not a hard one, calling for all the patience 
you could muster? Would you not often have cut the 
knot by throwing your books aside, had not the watch- 
ful eye of a present teacher been upon you? Did you 
not feel the need of that teachers presence every hour, 
to smooth difficulties, to show you the roots of words, 
to point out exceptions in syntax, to translate hard and 
involved sentences? In a word, had he not most pa- 
tiently and indulgently to bear you along in your at- 
tempts to master the difficulties of a strange language? 
Now, instead of all this, if you had been free master of 
your own time — if all the work of preparation had fal- 
len upon you in your own room, where you had no as- 
sistance in difficulties, if you had only seen your teach- 
er for an hour each day during recitatien, would you 
have become the scholar you now are? I ask this ques- 
tion of every man who remembors the labors of a high 



228 ARRANGEMENT OF COLLEGE CLSSES. 

school education, and I foresee that only one answer 
can be given, viz: that the steady drilling of six 
hours per day was absolutely necessary to enable him 
to become a thorough scholar. 

In order to fortify myself with the opinions and expe- 
rience of others on this matter, I lately put the ques- 
tion to a practical teacher, why our college education 
was so poor and inefficient, and to my satisfaction and 
surprise his answer was an amen to my own opinion. 
Said he, "the teacher and pupil are too far apart." 

Yes, that is the very difficulty. The minds of the 
students are undisciplined. They know not how even 
to pursue a study. They have no help in preparation. 
All their preparation must be made at their own rooms. 
In the recitation hour only they meet with their teacher, 
and worse than all, if the class be large, perhaps 
weeks pass by, without its coming to their turn to re- 
cite. They coolly calculate upon the chances of not 
being called up. Difficulties discourage them from 
making preparation, companions visit their rooms, and 
their studies give place to mirth and jollity. Thus they 
drag through a college session, and scrape up just 
enough knowledge to save them from an entire break- 
down at the closing examination. Their money and 
time are expended, yet only a few very diligent and 
persevering youths attain the goal of wisdom. 

Meantime a well managed high school can altogeth- 
er throw our colleges into the shade, because their or- 
der enables them to do the work efficiently, which the 
college pretended to do, but never really accomplished. 
The evil is now apparent, and I presume that it will not 
require much sagacity to devise the remedy; but of that 
I will speak in a future epistle. Meantime, I am, Mf. 
Editor, yours, 

JOHN YOUNG, 

SECOND LETTER. 

Brother Editor: In my last letter I aimed to set be- 
fore your readers the evils under which our present 
system of college education was laboring. These evil* 
were the following : 



ARRANGEMENT OF COLLEGE CLASSES. 229 



1. Young men enter college with a meagre stock of 
previous information, and with scarcely any mental dis- 
cipline. 

2. A preparatory department, though suitable to 
their advadcement, is unsuited to their pride, and is 
hardly entered until it is forsaken for the college class- 
es. 

3. The college classes of Latin, Greek, and Mathe- 
matics, are not managed with sufficient laboriousness 
to be well suited to impart mental discipline and studi- 
ous habits. The teacher and pupil see each other too 
little. The student must make all his preparation at 
his rooms, and has no help in difficulties. If he is in- 
clined to be idle, there is no power that can possibly 
ensure his attention to work one moment longer than 
the close of recitation hour. 

4. He is encouraged to undertake too many studies 
during the first year of his college course. Latin, 
greek, geometry, algebra, and perhaps chemistry and 
natural philosophy are thrown together into a perfect 
medley. In two of these branches he might have made 
respectable progress and heard lectures on belles let- 
tres besides; but when he is expected to carry on four 
or five heavy studies at the same time, he soon be- 
comes confused, discouraged, and masters nothing well. 

That any youth can gain a competent acquaintance 
with latin, greek, geometry, algebra, logic, mental 
philosophy, moral philosophy, political economy, chem- 
istry, and natural philosophy, in three years, is wholly 
out of the question. Less than three years will hardlj 
suffice to teach the two languages which usually occu- 
py the most prominent place in the course: consequent- 
ly, in most of our colleges, polite literature, rhetoric, 
and mental philosophy, receive but little attention. 
They are supposed to be only ornamental, and are con- 
sequently thrust into the back ground. Yet the belles 
lettres scholar, who has traveled over the whole range 
of English literature, will always excel as an orator, a 
w r riter, and a statesman; while the man who has learn- 
ed the laws of his own being, and thus practised the 
celebrated motto of antiquity, "Man, know thyself," 
20 



230 ARRANGEMENT OF COLLEGE CLASSES". 

will be thereby admirably fitted for the business of life' 
in any situation where his lot may fall. 

Having now glanced hastily at the defects which ap- 
pear in college management, I will address myself to 
the more difficult task of proposing a remedy. 

Perhaps some of my readers may be anticipating 
that I will now propose a return to the European sys- 
tem, and demand that the student shall be well ac- 
quainted with Latin, Greek, and the first three books of 
Euclid before he can enter college. 

I would indeed propose this remedy if I believed that 
it was possible to practically enforce it in this country; 
but I do not believe it practicable or suitable to our cir- 
cumstances. We have not good classical schools in 
every district where boys might receive this knowledge 
at home. Neither have we a sufficient number of high 
Schools to meet this want; and if we had such schools, 
the probability is, that many boys would terminate their 
education in the high school, and thus never have their 
minds enlarged and liberalized by philosophical stu- 
dies. 

For the benefit of those parents who maj not fully 
understand this matter, I will here hazard an assertion, 
which few competent persons will question; viz: that 
latin, greek and mathematics can be fully and as 
thoroughly taught in a good high school as in a college, 
but that logic, belles lettres, natural science, mental 
and moral philosophy can only be taught well by daily 
lectures and examinations, which no teachers of high 
schools have leisure or opportunity to carry on efficient- 
ly. That range of studies, then, which we properly 
call philosophical, must be learned from college lec- 
tures, or they stand little chance of being learned at all. 
The beau ideal, then, of a good institution of 
learning would be one that would contain an 
efficient range of schools for teaching classics and 
mathematics, taught laboriously six hours per day, with 
a series of college classes, giving daily lectures on the 
philosophy of matter, of mind, and of language. This 
plan of combining the high school with the college has 
been adopted in some of the large cities both of Eu- 
rope and America, with the very best results. 



ARRANGEMENT OF COLLEGE CLASSES. 2S 1 

To carry out this system efficiently in a large city, 
three schools would be necessary — an English school, a 
classical school, and a mathematical school — the stu- 
dents to continue their attendance upon these schools 
until they were fully ready for graduation in these 
branches. Then upon this basis would be erected a 
series of college classes, embracing only the philoso- 
phical studies, taught by lectures and carried on in all 
respects as they now usually are. Where the number 
of students is not over two hundred, and economy of 
expenditure is of importance, as it certainly is with us 
in most of our projects, the following plan would be 
found to answer every purpose: 

Let two schools be established — a classical school 
and a mathematical school. The college professors of 
classics and mathematics would be respectively the 
teachers of these two schools, with one assistant or 
more, or none, as the number of students attending 
might render necessary. The work of these schools 
would be to impart a full classical and mathematical 
education to the college students, and fully to prepare 
them for graduation in these branches. The student 
might spend half of each day in the one school and 
half in the other, and thorough classification be made 
according to progress, as is now usually done in the 
first class schools. No time of attendance n£ed be 
chalked out: one, two or three years he might attend 
there, according to the ratio of his progress and degree 
of his previous knowledge; but, whenever, sooner or 
later, he became qualified to pass the examination for 
graduation, he w r ould then be relieved of his toilsome 
attendance upon the school system, and could pass in- 
to the philosophical classes. Opportunity could also 
be afforded him to attend one college class during his 
school course, if the union of many studies together 
were supposed to be profitable. An arrangement could 
also be effected in the mathematical school by which 
arithmetic, English grammar, or any other branch of a 
common school education in which the student was defi- 
cient, could be taught as well, at least, as it now is in a 
preparatory department. 
The minute details of hours of attendance, number 



SS2 ARRANGEMENT OF COLLEGE CLASSES. 

of studies, &c, need not be laid down beforehand. 
They would be properly adjusted in the practical appli- 
cation of the plan. The great point is to effect a union 
of the efficiency of the high school with the philoso- 
phical lectures of the college, and to do this without an 
increase of expense in appointing extra teachers. This 
obj ect I take to be fully accomplished in the programme 
now set before the reader. I will therefore proceed to 
notice two objections which will probably be urged 
against this system. 

1. It will be said that aristocratic young men will 
never submit to sit down at a desk and carry on their 
studies for six hours a day inside a school room. 

Now I do not know that they will like it entirely. To 
be confined even six hours per day at books humbles 
pride exceedingly, and draws upon patience. But I 
suppose it to be absolutely necessary, and even more 
necessary for the full-grown gentlemanly student, who 
does not mean to work, than for the studious youth. 
Some young men might not like it quite as w T ell as 
walking the streets, twirling a cane, drinkiiig brandy 
and using* a revolver, but in the end it would be a great 
deal more profitable. When a young gentleman ar- 
rives at college with a settled determination that he will 
not stay in doors, nor study, nor submit to the authority 
of the faculty, I suppose that it would have been quite 
as well for both the college and himself had he remain- 
ed at home, and that the next best thing for all parties 
concerned is for him to return home as speedily as pos- 
sible. There are some young men who cannot be edu- 
cated, and we have not aimed to devise a plan for work- 
ing impossibilities. 

2. It may be objected that the professors of classics 
and mathematics may not like a change by which they 
are to be confined in the school room for six hours per 
day, and be made responsible for the conduct of all the 
junior students during that time. 

Now this, too, is very natural. If two or three hours 
per day will do the work thoroughly, and if there be no 
need for the professors to oversee the conduct of the stu- 
dents except during recitation hour, then my plan is 
foolish and unnecessary. But I am writing these &v\i- 



ARRANGEMENT OF COLLEGE CLAbSfiJS. '-235 

clea under the impression that our college education is 
not now as thorough as it ought to be; and that the 
conduct of the young men is not under the oversight of 
any one, and that sometimes the professor thinks 
it safest to be popular, do little, and get his salary; while 
parents, students, and the cause of education generally 
suffer from these defects. 

I do not pretend to have ingenuity enough to give" the 
professor a life of ease, the student a life of dissipation, 
and thereby to impart a sound education; but I think 1 
could promise that the professors who should zealously 
carry out this plan would be rewarded by seeing the 
number of good students largely increase, and that 
their support from students' fees would increase "accord- 
ingly. 

Finally, my suggestions are now before the public, 
and I will be willing to hear the objections that can be 
urged against them, and well pleased to hear the opin- 
ion of men intimate with such matters, whether favor- 
able to my plan or otherwise. 
I am, dear brother, yours, 

JOHN YOUNG 



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